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words, who are to be "the Medical Authority" ?-There tan be no competent
authority to decide such a thing.
283. Would you limit the competence to a European qualified medical
Jran ?-No, certainly not; nor to any medical man at all.
284. If limited to medical use, of course Government would have to
select the different systems of medicines, as in India and China, which they
would have to recognise as systems of medicine, as being competent to state
what is the medicinal quantity ?-Yes.
285. Have you any idea as to how many medical systems there are in
India or China or Persia ?-No.
286. Then you consider that fixing a medicinal limit, as far al Asia
is concerned, is impossible ?-It is neither practical nor practicable. It i.
impossible .
. 287. Do you think that this continuous increase in the price of chandu
is working beneficially, or otherwise, as regards the use of opium ?-It leads
to more poverty, I think, than when chandu was cheaper. More coolies,
perhaps, spend a bigger proportion of their income on the indulgence and,
therefore. have less left for themselves or for their families, if they have
families.
288. Don't you think that, as smoking chandu is a very wasteful
method of using the drug, they take to other less wasteful methods, such as
swallowing?-Yes.
289. And then, assuming that they cannot afford even the amount to
swallow, don't you think that a reasonable thing would be to hunt after
a still cheaper method, viz., injections ?-Yes, morphia injections.
290. Do you think that all non-medical uses of chandu should be classed
as abuses ?-No; if I were an American Prohibitionist, I might: but I am not.
291 Do you think that it is the case that using deleterious drugs in
Asia seems to occur only when there is a difficulty in procuring opium ?-Yes.
292. You think that people take to drugs when chandu or opium is
not available ?-Yes, that is my opinion.
293. Do you think that this question of drug using in Asia and the
.question of drug using in Europe and America are two totally different things,
based on totally different demands ?-Yes.
294. And that the use of opium alone requires consideration quite
apart from the question of using drugs ?-Yes.
295. Mr. Lim Nee Soon.-Do both the opium smoker and the nonsmoker
h;:ve an equal expectation of life ?-Yes. It does not affect the
expectation of life. I can say that I have examined opium smokers for
insurance when I was in Kedah, I have passed them as first class lives and
they have been accepted as first class lives by good insurance companies.
25)6. Dr. Galloway.-Had you a limit in your mind as to wh'lt those
men might consume ?-The usual insurance company's limit was 2 chees a
day, but I was guided more by the appearance and health of the man as
revealed by my examination than by any stated quantity that he used.
297. Then you would not turn a good life down, even though he
consumed double that. amount ?-No, not unless the insurance company gave
specific instructions.
298. But from a medical standpoint you would not turn that down ?­
No, I would not; and I might say that of three opium smokers whom I
examined 14 or IS years ago, two Chinese gentlemen in Alor Star are both still
alive and in good health.
299. Mr. Lim Nee Soon.-How much did they take?-That I cannot
say at this distance of time, but they were men who smoked quite a quantity,
and one of them I would have known from his appearance was a smoker. .
This concluded Dr. Hoops' evidence.