Last Thursday’s class helped me narrow my topic. Instead of researching the more historical issue of Opium in China and the Opium Wars, I’ve redirected my interest toward opium’s effect on present-day China. This topic both caters more to the modernity of our class while also leaving open the possibility for discussing the Opium Wars’ lasting effect on Chinese culture, foreign affairs, and economy. Heroine and morphine are the modern day derivates of the drug that possessed 19th century China. I am interested to see if those drugs still permeate Chinese society or if the fear of the drug has resulted in near eradication.
A JSTOR article highlighted one effect of the opium wars on present day public policy, “The modern system of laws against ‘hard’ drugs, i.e. cocaine and opiates, evolved out of the measures taken to help imperial China with its opium problem” R.K. Newman Modern Asia Studies
From a google timeline, http://www.adjunctcollege.com/OpiateHistory2a.html, I found that even up into the mid 1990s, China’s remained one of the world’s leading opium producers and distributors. The last date, November 1996, states that International drug trafficking organizations, including China, Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico are said to be "aggressively marketing heroin in the United States and Europe."
The Economist writes that opium’s infiltration into the United States came via the Chinese in California, leading to the Harrisson Act of 1914 (outlawing opiates as a non prescribed drug). Heroine’s rise in users, production, and purity, though, suggest that the demand for opium-related drugs is increasing, despite the laws against it. Coupled with the fact that China still plays a major role in opiate production, its evident that opiates still contain a notable presence in Chinese society.
Why did the Chinese use opium so heavily in the past? Is there presently a substantial opium underground there? As far as the general drug scene in China goes, is opium still the most used drug, or has another narcotic taken its place? What are opium's effects on the economy?
Posted by: Michael Caspani at October 12, 2004 02:23 PMI'm pretty sure that there is a pretty substancial crime syndicate in china that deals with drugs. When I went to look it up this book: Gerald L. Posner: Warlords of Crime, Chinese Secret Societies--The New Mafia came up. It's pretty old at 1988 but it looks interesting and would deal with another aspect of the heroin trade.