Group of Opium Smokers

[i]

DRUG
SMUGGLING and TAKING
IN INDIA AND BURMA

BY
ROY. K. ANDERSON, F.R.S.A.
Superintendent, Burma Excise Department

ILLUSTRATED

CALCUTTA and SIMLA
THACKER, SPINK & CO.
1922

[ii]

PRINTED BY
THACKER, SPINK & CO.
CALCUTTA

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PREFACE.

At a time when the drug-evil, as it is called,is attracting so much attention all over theworld, it does not seem out of place to tell thepublic something about how conditions in regardto it obtain in India and Burma. As far as Ihave been able to ascertain there is no literatureon this subject outside “blue books,” and thoseadmirable compilations are notoriously dryreading. A novel called “Dope” by SaxRohmer professes to deal with the drug-eviland the traffic in drugs in the West; but it is anovel; has a hero, a heroine, a forbidding typeof detective, and some degenerates, and a fewimpossible Chinamen in it, to give verisimilitudeto the title and all that it implies.

I do not profess to write as an authority onthe subjects I have taken up. I realise thatthere are scores of others more experienced,and infinitely better able to make a book onthese subjects than I am; but there seems tobe little hope of their ever getting the better oftheir modesty and appearing in print. I write[iv]of what I have seen for myself, and ventilateopinions I have formed which I expect no one tosubscribe to who differs from them. My readersmay rest assured, however, that what I relate istrue. I have not consciously exaggerated, norhave I suppressed facts. I write on a subjectin which I am interested; and, if theattention that has at different times been givento my verbal accounts is an indication of somethingmore than the polite toleration of theraconteur, then there are others also who areinterested, and I need offer no apologies for myattempt to supply a deficiency in the bookshelvesof those who want more information.

A preface often affords the writer an opportunityof performing a pleasant duty. Thatwhich I have to perform is to record my thanksto Mr. F. W. Dillon, Barrister, and author of“From an Indian Bar Room,” for the troublehe took in reading the manuscript, and his manyhelpful suggestions.

R. K. ANDERSON.

Redfern,
26th March, 1921.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.