BOMBAY MEMORANDUM.
97
15. The statement marked H* shows the number of hemp-drug shops open in Bombay
during each of the last five revenue years. The shops are shown in two classes:
(a) those in which drugs are sold but not consumed on the premises, and
(b) those in which drugs are sold and consumed on the premises.
In the greater number of shops under the (a) or drug-selling class the business of selling
drugs is combined with the sale of tobacco and pán-súpari.
The (b) or drug-consuming shops are places used solely for the sale and consumption of
hemp-drugs.
16. Before a new shop can be opened, or an old shop be transferred from one place to
another, the farmer must obtain the Collector's sanction. No opening of a fresh shop is
allowed if the residents in the neighbourhood offer reasonable objections.
17. The Police Commissioner grants the police license required under Bombay Act
XLVIII of 1860 for (b) or drug-consuming shops on payment of a nominal yearly fee of Re.
(1) one. For the opening of a new or the transfer of an old drug-consuming shop the pre-
vious approval of the Police Commissioner is also necessary. From the beginning of the
current revenue year 72 hemp-drug shops have been open, of which 52 come under class (a)
or drug-selling and 20 under class (b) or drug-consuming.
18. As the sole right of sale within the island belongs to the farmer, no wholesale drug
shops occur in Bombay. Under a license granted by the Collector the farmer issues to his
nominees nokarnamas or service certificates countersigned by the Collector. In these service
certificates all the provisions of the license relating to the working of the shops are embodied.
19. The Bombay farmer is not required to sell drugs at any fixed price. The following
table shows the present rates at which the farmer sells the different drugs to his nominees and
the rates at which his nominees retail them to the public:—
Wholesale and Retail Rates, 1893.
PRICE.
Drug.
Quantity.
Wholesale.
Retail.
Remarks.
Rs. A. P.
Rs. A. P.
Ganja
Pound of 40
tolas.
2
3
8
to
0
0
0
3 9 0
Bhang
Ditto
0 1 2 0
0 14 3
Charas
Ditto
7 8 0
10 0 0
Garda
Ditto
0
0
4
to
5
6
0
0 5 9
Majum
Ditto
0 14 0
1 4 0
That is, the retail prices show an increase of 15 to 42 per cent. over the wholesale or
farmer's prices.
20. In Bombay no limit is set to the number of drug shops the farmer may open with
the sanction of the Collector and Police Commissioner. In practice any increase in the
number of shops is discouraged. The farmer would find it difficult to obtain sanction to the
opening of a new shop, especially to a shop of the drug-consuming class. The shops are located
in parts of the town where the drugs are in demand, that is, as a rule, in the most thickly-
peopled parts of the town.
21. Except by such special order as is contemplated under section 17 of the Abkari Act
the ninth condition of his license prevents the farmer selling to the same person on the same
day more than 40 tolas of any hemp-drug. Applications for such special orders are unknown.
No case is on record of any one requiring more than 40 tolas of a drug for his own use during
a single day. The possession of more than 40 tolas of a drug by one person, except under the
authority of a permit, is also illegal.
22. The statement marked I* shows for each of the past five years the quantities of drugs
brought into Bombay by the farmer for local sale. In comparing these figures with those
* Not printed.
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