Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1934. THE DRUG TRAFFIC.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 194, 30 May 1934, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1934. THE DRUG TRAFFIC.

All the scoundrels in the world are flocking to Bulgaria, according to a member of the Opium Advisory Committee of the League of Nations, that country being the one big source for the manufacture of drugs left in Europe. Though the statements of other members show that the traffic is an alarmingly enormous one, Bulgaria s importations last year being sufficient for the manufacture of four times the world’s requirements in heroin, the fact that one country only can be regarded as the stronghold of the illicit trade is indication that some success has been achieved in the campaign to suppress it. This success has in large measure been made possible by the awakening of the public conscience in countries where this ghoulish trade has been carried on. As an indication of the growth of in ternational sentiment against it twenty eight countries are now aligned in the war upon the illicit traffickers. The International Convention for the Limitation of Manufacture and the Regulation of the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, fortified by these countries, came into force on April 10, 1932. A central office has been established to keep account of the world’s traffic in dangerous drugs, and to prepare estimates of the quantities required for legitimate purposes by the signatory rations. The organisation against the trade proceeds on two parallel lines of activity. The first is to deal with the production of narcotic drugs at the source. 1 hat is a matter for the governments of the nations backed by public opinion. The second is the break-up of the illicit organisations which control and direct the purchase and distribution of narcotics. The Special Police Bureau of the League of Nations has done excellent work in this connection. The great stumbling block lies in the chaotic conditions, in China, where the annual production of opium was estimated recently at twenty-four million pounds. The Nanking Government has affirmed that its policy has always been one of total prohibition of the production and consumption of opium except for legitimate purposes. But the Government has not shown sufficient strength to enforce that policy and so the evil continues.