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APPENDIX XV Ill.
Evidenoe of Dr. Hoopa, Page C Sill.
REpORT ON AN INQUIRY INTO THE USE OF OPIUM BY CHINESE. NOW PATIENTS IN
TAN TOCK SENC'S (FREE) HOSPITAL.
NOVEMBER, 1923
I. All the Chinese patients over 17 years of age. who were not too ill.
were carefully questioned. They were made to understand that there would
be no consequences, whatever their answers were. and I believe that the
great majority of them spoke the truth.
2. The total number examined was 483: of these 175 were. or had heen
opium takers, i.e., 36'2 per cent.
3. The numbers of cases from the different Chinese Provinces. with
the numbers of opium takers from each are shown in the attached table.
Approximately 70 per cent of the opium takers state that they started to
use opium in Malaya. Only 30 per cent admit that they took it in China.
Details are shown on the table.
4. Incapacity due to opium-
In no case was indulgence in opium the sole cause of the patient's
incap'lcity; in 4 cases, i.e., about- 2 per cent, opium was probably the
principal cause, and in 28 cases the incapacity due to disease was increased
or the chances of recovery lessened, as a result of taking opium. In the
remaining 143 cases, the use of opium had produced no evident ill effects.
This does not take into account the effects of poverty due to excessive
expenditure on opium.
5. Average daily consumption of opium:-
Under Ii hoons
Over Ii under 3 hoons
3 hoons
Over 3 under 6 hoons
6 hoons
Over 6 under 9 hoons
9 to IS hoons
Over IS hoons ...
The most popular daily consumption was 3 hoons (one packet costing
40 cents) a day. Probably this limit is fixed by cost, rather than by the
amount desired, because the older men who had started to smoke opium
when it was cheap, said they usually took two packets (6 hoons) a day.
6. The reason given for starting to take opium were:­
For pleasure or relief of fatigue 71 cases = 40%
For illness or relief of pain 104 cases =60%
7. Use of Alcohol in relation to opium:-
In 175 opium smokers, 4.5 also took alcohol=26%
In 308 non-opium smokers, 98 took alcohol = 32%
15
32
59
17
24
21
5
:I
175