When a Hongkonger was accused of dealing more opium than the global medical supply
- An Indian merchant appeared before a Hong Kong court in 1958 accused of possessing nearly 500kg of opium – enough to make 45kg of heroin, or ‘more than the whole medical supply of the world’
“A 30-year-old Indian merchant, Mohindra Verma, of 11B MacDonnell Road, and 35-year-old unemployed man, Pui Sai-hung, of 173 Wing Lok Street, West, second floor, appeared before Mr Hin-shing Lo at Central Magistracy yesterday on a charge of conspiracy to deal in raw opium,” reported the South China Morning Post on February 25, 1958. “It is alleged that both defendants conspired together with others not in custody to deal in dangerous drugs between February 15 and 22.”
On July 5, the Post reported that “sentencing Verma, Judge H. H. B. How said: ‘When I bear in mind what drugs do to countless people all over the world I cannot fail to take the gravest view of this offence.’
“Before Judge How passed sentence, the Crown Counsel, Mr D. E. Greenfield said most opium possession cases which came before the courts in Hongkong concerned only one or two pounds of the drug. Verma, however, had been convicted of possession [of] more than 1,000 lbs [453kg] of the drug, which would make more than 100 lbs [45kg] of heroin.
“As a pound of heroin would make several thousand doses, this one consignment was more than the whole medical supply of the world, Mr Greenfield said. He asked the Judge not to treat Verma as a small peddler of opium. Verma was an importer on the largest scale, and if there were no importations on this scale peddlers and dealers would not be in existence, Mr Greenfield said.”
On October 14, the Post revealed that the “full court yesterday dismissed an appeal by Mohindra Verma […] against his conviction for possession of 1,076 ¼ pounds [488kg] of opium on February 22, but allowed the five-year sentence to run from the day of conviction, July 4, instead of from yesterday”.
