Colombo advertises four opium and bhang retail licences

In September 1893, Colombo’s municipal government advertised a tightly limited legal market for opium and bhang. A notice signed by the mayor and chairman, H. Hay Cameron, announced four retail licences for the following year and set out conditions for their operation.

Four licences offered at auction

The notice was dated 6 September and appeared in the government gazette of 15 September. It cited section 3 of Ordinance No. 9 of 1889 as its authority. The municipal council had resolved that four licences would be available for the year beginning 1 January 1894.

The advertised auction was to take place at the municipal office at noon on 14 October 1893. These dates describe different stages of the process: the notice, its publication, the planned auction and the licensing year. The notice alone does not prove that all four licences were ultimately purchased or that every advertised shop opened.

Rules inside the shop

Licensed premises were subject to inspection, and riotous or disorderly conduct was forbidden. Shops could not remain open for sales before six in the morning or after nine in the evening.

The licensee had to display a name, shop number and an identifying retail-opium sign conspicuously. Although that specified sign referred to opium, the notice repeatedly applied its sales conditions to both opium and bhang. Reading only the sign’s wording would miss the cannabis trade covered by the notice.

Control over staff and wholesale supply

An agent or servant could not sell or display either substance under the licence unless registered at the municipal council office with the chairman’s approval. The condition made the licence more than permission attached to a shop: the people acting under it also required administrative recognition.

Wholesale licences were available only to retail dealers. The short notice does not give their price, establish the quantity sold or explain every provision of the underlying ordinance.

A local market before prohibition

The document supplies a concrete example of cannabis commerce governed through municipal licensing. It applies to Colombo and should not be generalized to all of Ceylon.

Later that year, a new ordinance provided a framework for other designated towns. The 1897 legislation subsequently prohibited bhang and ganja imports, possession and sale. This notice is unscored context in the Sri Lanka timeline.^[1]