The Opium Wars of 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 marked a new stage in China’s relations with the West. China’s military defeats in these wars forced its rulers to sign treaties opening many ports to foreign trade. The restrictions imposed under the Canton system were abolished. Opium, despite imperial prohibitions, now became a regular item of trade. As opium flooded into China, its price dropp...

This article deals with the relationship between opium revenue farming and the development of capitalist enterprises in Southeast Asia. It examines the role which opium played in the transformation of all Asian economies during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While few would deny that the unprecedented expansion of the opium trade by European traders had a major, usually destructi...

are familiar, indeed, with these effects, but there is something very remarkable in them. That ease should be procured by the juice of a poppy! that the wonderful mind should be influenced by a cause so apparently insignificant I The great John Hunter exclaimed, Thank God for opium! and it is an undoubted blessing that the Creator should have permitted such an antidote to the sufferings ot mank...

T he world’s entire supply of opioid painkillers begins with the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Every year, about 100,000 ha of the crop is grown for its opiate compounds, which are extracted and converted into analgesics such as codeine and hydrocodone. Bioengineer Christina Smolke of Stanford University thinks it’s time for a new approach. Last year, she developed yeast that turns glucose ...

This study examines India and Turkey as case studies relevant to the Senlis Council’s ‘poppies for medicine’ proposal. The proposal is that Afghan farmers are licensed to produce opium for medical and scientific purposes. Here it is posited that the Senlis proposal neglects at least three key lessons from the Turkish and Indian experiences. First, not enough weight has been given to diversion f...