Read complete books and articles on: Opium

Opium - substance derived by collecting and drying the milky juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Opium varies in color from yellow to dark brown and has a characteristic odor and a bitter taste. Its chief active principle is the alkaloid morphine, a narcotic. Other constituents are the alkaloids codeine, papaverine, and noscapine (narcotine); heroin is synthesized from morphine. Morphine, heroin, and codeine are addicting drugs; papaverine and narcotine are not. A tincture of opium is called laudanum; paregoric is a mixture of opium, alcohol, and camphor.

Effects and Addictive Nature

Opium and its various constituents exert effects upon the body ranging from analgesia, or insensitivity to pain, to narcosis, or depressed physiological activity leading to stupor. Opium users describe experiencing a feeling of calm and well-being. Opium addicts in otherwise good physical and mental health whose drug needs are met are thought to experience no debilitating physiological effects from their addiction, although there is some evidence that immune function is compromised. However, their preoccupation with the drug and its acquisition can lead to malnutrition and general poor self-care and an increased risk of disease.

Medical Uses

Opium was commonly used as an analgesic until the development of morphine. Morphine continues to be prescribed for relief of severe pain, but fears of its addictive potential have limited its use. Laudanum was used in the 1800s to promote sleep and alleviate pain; codeine suppresses coughing; paregoric stops diarrhea. Medicinal opiates were freely available in the United States and Europe in the 19th cent., and the number of addicted people surged as a result.

History

The medicinal properties of opium have been known from the earliest times, and it was used as a narcotic in Sumerian and European cultures at least as early as 4000 b.c. The drug was introduced into India by the Muslims and its use spread to China. Early in the 19th cent., against Chinese prohibitions, British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain, an act that set the stage for the Opium Wars. Chinese emigrants to the United States, who were employed to build the transcontinental railroad, brought the opium-smoking habit to the West Coast.

During the 19th cent. opium was grown in the United States as well as imported. Besides indiscriminate medical use, opiates were available in the United States in myriad tonics and patent medicines, and smoking in opium dens was unhindered, resulting in an epidemic of opiate addiction by the late 1800s. The generous use of morphine in treating wounded soldiers during the Civil War also produced many addicts.

Importation of opium by Chinese nationals was prohibited in 1887; in 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act required accurate labeling of patent medicines. The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 taxed and regulated the sale of narcotics and prohibited giving maintenance doses to addicts who made no effort to recover, leading to the arrest of some physicians and the closing of maintenance-treatment clinics. Since then, numerous laws attempting to regulate importation, availability, use, and treatment have been passed, and the concern with opium addiction per se has largely been replaced by concern with heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and other illegal drugs.

Large quantities of opium are still grown, some for legitimate use, on opium poppy farms in Southeast Asia (the "Golden Triangle:" primarily in Myanmar), Southwest Asia (primarily Afghanistan and Pakistan), and Latin America (primarily Colombia). The opium gum may be crudely refined and smoked (e.g., "brown sugar") or converted to morphine and heroin. Growers usually make more for opium than for other crops, and the cultivation and refining employ hundreds of thousands of people, but the real profits go to the drug traffickers. It is estimated that the street price for heroin is 153 to 183 times that of the opium bought from the farmer. Despite laws and agreements to control its use, a worldwide illicit opium traffic persists.

15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Opium

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Opium and Foreign Policy: The Anglo-American Search for Order in Asia, 1912-1954 » Read Now
by William O. Walker III. 345 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...OPIUM AND FOREIGN POLICY WILLIAM O. WALKER III Opium and Foreign Policy The Anglo-American Search for...Cataloging-in-Publication Data Walker William O., 1946- Opium and...
2.

Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839-1952 » Read Now
by Timothy Brook, Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. 444 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Opium is more than just a drug extracted from poppies. Over the past two centuries it has been a palliative medicine, an addictive substance, a high-value commodity, a powerful mechanism for concentrating and transferring wealth and power between nations, and the anchor of a now vanished...
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Opium is more than just a drug extracted from poppies. Over the past two centuries it has been a palliative medicine, an addictive substance, a high-value commodity, a powerful mechanism for concentrating and transferring wealth and power between nations, and the anchor of a now vanished sociocultural world in and around China. Opium Regimes integrates the pioneering research of sixteen scholars to show that the opium trade was not purely a British operation but involved Chinese merchants, Chinese state agents, and Japanese imperialists as well. The book presents a coherent historical arc that moves from British imperialism in the nineteenth century to Chinese capital formation and state making at the turn of the century to Japanese imperialism through the 1930s and 1940s and finally to the apparent resolution of China's opium problem in the early 1950s.
Avoiding the Eurocentric focus of earlier approaches, this volume relies on the concept of "opium regimes" in Asia -- the regional and local systems that,states, corporations, and civic associations set up either to profit from or suppress the opium trade. By focusing on these opium regimes, the authors are able to investigate the systematic and comprehensive character of drug-control structures, stressing their capacity for operating in the political realm. The complex interweaving of commodity trading, addiction, and state intervention in opium's history refigured the historical face of East Asia more profoundly than any other commodity.
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3.

Opium and the Politics of Gangsterism in Nationalist China, 1927-1945, in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars » Read Now
by Jonathan Marshall. 29 pgs.

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...Opium and the Politics of Gangsterism in Nationalist China, 1927-1945...the history of Republican Chinese politics will be lost. Opium was a key well-spring of power in the...
4.

The Control of Fuddle and Flash: A Sociological History of the Regulation of Alcohol and Opiates (Chap. Four "The Colonial Opium Trade") » Read Now
by Jan-Willem Gerritsen. 279 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
5.

Drugs in America: A Social History, 1800-1980 (Chap. 3 "The Habitues: The Nineteenth Century") » Read Now
by H. Wayne Morgan. 234 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

...morphine addict 26 An opium smokers outfit 36...discovered a great deal of comment on the "opium problem," and on drug use in general. I...opposed to the developing...
6.

Global Habit: The Drug Problem in a Borderless World ("Origins of Prohibition, 1900-1945" begins on p. 16) » Read Now
by Paul B. Stares. 172 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The market for illicit drugs is expanding inexorably around the world. More kinds of drugs are becoming more available in more places than ever before. But the drug trade is not only growing, it is changing in character. It has ceased to be a marginal area of criminal activity and has now become a...
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The market for illicit drugs is expanding inexorably around the world. More kinds of drugs are becoming more available in more places than ever before. But the drug trade is not only growing, it is changing in character. It has ceased to be a marginal area of criminal activity and has now become a major global enterprise controlled by formidable interests that threaten much more than the health of drug users. Global retail sales of illicit drugs are estimated at between $180 billion and more than $300 billion annually, thus ranking as one of the world's biggest commercial activities. Moreover, the immense wealth that has been amassed from selling drugs has given the principal trafficking organizations enormous power to corrupt and intimidate public officials and government institutions. In this major book, Paul Stares presents a compelling portrait of the global drug market and the consequences of this international plague. He explains that there are good reasons to fear that the global market for drugs will continue to expand in the coming years: profits to the traffickers are huge; the revolutionary advances in communications, transportation, and information technology facilitate smuggling, as do the lowering of border controls and trade tariffs and the trends toward privatization and deregulation. Meanwhile, the expanded volume of global trade, travel, and financial transactions makes it harder for customs and police authorities to detect and stop illicit activities. Added to the growing incentives and opportunities to supply illicit drugs, the level of demand is increasing in many new areas of the world, particularly in formerly communist countries and many areas of the developingworld. What can done about this growing problem? One option is legalization, but Stares contends that its implementation would be problematic while its benefits remain unclear. Yet, continuing on the present course will not w
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7.

Drugs and Foreign Policy: A Critical Review ("The Early Years" begins on p. 9) » Read Now
by Raphael F. Perl. 227 pgs.

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...illicit drugs has increased dramatically: Opium and marijuana production has roughly doubled...dollars annually in an attempt to interdict opium and opiates from Asia and...
8.

Drug Wars: The Political Economy of Narcotics (Part I "Opium") » Read Now
by Curtis Marez. 349 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
9.

Opium and the Beginnings of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia, in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies » Read Now
by Carl A. Trocki. 18 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
10.

Drugs in South Asia: From the Opium Trade to the Present Day » Read Now
by M. Emdad-Ul Haq. 319 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The drug problem in South Asia is mounting. This work provides an inside story of the pro-revenue drug policies pursued by the British colonial authorities and post-independent governments in South Asia.
11.

What's Legal and What's Not: The Regulation of Opiates in 1912, in Economic Inquiry » Read Now
by Robert J. Michaels. 18 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
12.

Drugs and Drug Policy in America: A Documentary History (Part I "American Drug Policy in the 19th Century") » Read Now
by Steven R. Belenko. 380 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

Debates over the use and abuse of drugs, the laws controlling drugs in this country, and the question of whether or not certain drugs should be legally available have inflamed Americans since the 19th-century, and continue to flourish as America attempts to rage its "war on drugs." Students can...
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Debates over the use and abuse of drugs, the laws controlling drugs in this country, and the question of whether or not certain drugs should be legally available have inflamed Americans since the 19th-century, and continue to flourish as America attempts to rage its "war on drugs." Students can trace the history and development of these arguments, as well as the reactions to them, through this unique collection of over 250 primary documents. Court cases, speeches, laws, opinion pieces, and other documents bring to life the controversies surrounding the issues. Explanatory introductions to documents aid users in understanding the various arguments put forth, while illuminating the significance of each document.
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13.

Afghan Poppies Bloom: The War-Ravaged, Opium-Dependent Country Lives in Fear of a New Drug War, in The Nation » Read Now
by Christian Parenti. 4 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
14.

The Wars of the Poppies; Leslie Marchant Sees the Opium Wars as a Philosophical Clash between Two Cultures and Two Notions of Government and Society, in History Today » Read Now
by Leslie Marchant. 8 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, History, Entire Library
15.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings » Read Now
by Thomas De Quincey, Grevel Lindop. 270 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This selection of De Quincey's writings includes the title piece--his most famous work--as well as "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth," "The English Mail-Coach," and the Suspiria de Profundis.