History of opium in Sri Lanka.

OPIUM figures in most pharmacopoeias of the East and the West, but its sinister reputation as a narcotic overshadows its medicinal properties. The British context has been examined in a recent book.' In Sri Lanka, for centuries, it enjoyed unrestricted sales and uninhibited consumption like any other article of commerce. It was not till the middle of the last century that the public became alive to its baneful effects. In response to public protests, the state placed progressively tighter restrictions on the sale and use of opium. Opium was native to West Asia, which included Persia and Afghanistan. It was known to the Greeks as early as the third century BC, and they were credited with having discovered its narcotic properties. It was introduced to the East largely by Arab traders, and was known to the Chinese by the ninth century AD. Indians learned of its medicinal properties probably through Arab physicians who came to India with the Mohammedan conquerors in the twelfth century AD.2