Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 58 Part 1.djvu/694

 PUBLIC LAWS-CH. 363 -JULY 1, 1944 [CHAPTER 363] Yuly i, 1044 [H. J. Bes. 2411 [Public Law 400] Opium and its de- rivatives. Proposal for limita- tion on production. Elimination of il- licit traffic. President requested to urge designated Governments to limit production. JOINT RESOLUTION Requesting the President to urge upon the governments of those countries where the cultivation of the poppy plant exists, the necessity of immediately limiting the production of opium to the amount required for strictly medicinal and scien- tific purposes. Whereas for nearly forty years the United States of America has led the fight to destroy the illicit traffic in and nonmedical consumption of opium, as evidenced by its abolishing the opium monopoly sys- tem which it inherited in the Philippine Islands; its calling at Shanghai in 1909 the first International Commission to consider the opium problem; its suggesting the calling of the three Inter- national Opium Conferences at The Hague in 1912, 1913, 1914; its urging at the International Opium Conference of 1924 and 1925 sponsored by the League of Nations that the only effective way to suppress the demoralizing use of opium and its derivatives (heroin, morphine, and so forth) was to control the source of the evil by limiting the cultivation of the poppy plant to the legitimate medic- inal and scientific needs of the world; and its further participa- tion in the Geneva Conference of 1931 to restrict the manufacture and distribution of narcotic drugs; and Whereas the laws of the Chinese Government strictly prohibit the cultivation of the opium poppy and the use of smoking opium in all territory under its control, and the people of China have valiantly resisted the attempts of the invading Japanese militarists to enslave them by encouraging and even compelling the cultiva- tion and use of opium; and Whereas final defeat of Japan will terminate the illicit traffic in nar- cotics which has been carried on by the Japanese military in all territories they have occupied in the Far East; and Whereas the British and the Netherlands Governments have recently announced their decision to prohibit the use of opium for smok- ing and not to reestablish their government monopolies for the sale of smoking opium.in the territories formerly controlled by them in the Far East when those territories are freed from Jap- anese occupation, stating however that the success of their action must in the final analysis depend upon the cooperation of the opium-growing countries; and Whereas because of our military operations in certain other areas in Asia, there are now thousands of young American citizens in countries where opium is cultivated and freely available, and other Americans are on vessels delivering war materials to those coun- tries, which condition constitutes a real threat to the health and welfare of these Americans and affords easy opportunity for the highly profitable smuggling of opium into the United States where its use has been greatly reduced: Therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress express its conviction that this World War ought to be not an occasion for permitting expansion and spreading of illicit traffic in opium, but rather an opportunity for completely eliminating it; and be it further Resolved, That the President be, and he hereby is, requested to approach the Governments of all opium-producing countries through- out the world, urging upon them in the interest of protecting Ameri- can citizens and those of our allies and of freeing the world of an age-old evil, that they take immediate steps to limit and control the growth of the opium poppy and the production of opium and its 674 [58 STAT.

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