§ Captain Kerbyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what cooperation his Department offered to the Permanent Central Opium Board in the preparation of its recent report, published by the United Nations, on the spread of illicit drug traffic in Western Europe; to what extent this traffic has increased in Britain since the war; and what evidence he has of the effect of the current immigration of West Indians into Britain upon the illicit traffic in drugs, especially marihuana, in this country.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeThe preparation of the Permanent Central Opium Board's report is the responsibility of the Board, who rely for their information on reports submitted by Governments. Her Majesty's Government have always cooperated wholeheartedly with the Board. In the United Kingdom, both before and since the war, the illicit traffic in dangerous drugs has been small. There is virtually no traffic in manufactured drugs and, since the war, traffic in opium appears to have declined. There has, however, been some increase in the traffic in Indian hemp (sometimes called marihuana), and a particularly close watch is being kept on this problem. Those convicted of offences in respect of 147W this drug in recent years include a small number of West Indians, but none of these was a very recent immigrant.