Opium

One of the major plagues of humankind is the voluntary use of drugs for psychotropic purposes rather than medical.  Opium in its various forms is one of the most common forms of psychotropic drugs.  In a discussion of drugs, American sociologist Bernard Barber had this to say:

                “Not only can nearly anything be called a ‘drug,’ but things so called turn out to have an enormous

                variety of psychological and social functions – not only religious and therapeutic and ‘addictive.’

                but political and aesthetic and ideological and aphrodisiac and so on.  Indeed, this has been the case

                since the beginning of human society.  It seems that always and everywhere drugs have been involve-

                ed in just about every psychological and social function there is, just as they are involved in every

                physiological function.”

 Opium is a narcotic drug obtained from the unripe seedpods of the opium poppy.  Farmers raising poppy harvest raw opium by slitting the seedpods which then exude a milky latex that coagulates and turns into a gumlike brown mass upon exposure to the air.  Packaged and distributed as lumps, cakes or bricks, the opium is processed to obtain morphine, codeine, paregoric and heroin.  The principal use of the resultant drugs is to relieve or suppress pain, but may also be used to alleviate anxiety, treat diarrhea or induce relaxation, drowsiness and sedation.  Unfortunately, the latter benefits have led to and supported psychotropic use. 

The poppy plants are not all exclusively opium producing.  There are many ornamental flowering varieties and the        opium poppy is also grown for its nonnarcotic ripe seeds, which are used for seasoning, oil and birdseed.  An unexpected problem occurred in recent years when different sports began drug testing their athletes.  Many tests were showing a positive reaction where drugs were not involved.  It was found that eating foods, especially breads, cakes and other baked goods that contained poppy seeds, prior to the standard urine tests was causing the faulty results.  The tests were adjusted to compensate for the poppy seed consumption, but the changes were not satisfactory.  In most cases, the athletes were simply advised to avoid poppy seeds and other foods that could affect the tests prior to testing.

In January 1989, the popular magazine Reader’s Digest published an article, “There Was a Nation . . .” written by Paul Harvey, an article that every American should read:

“There was once a nation founded upon the principles of reason and moral responsibility.  Blessed with

 an industrious people and abounding in natural resources, it became one of the most prosperous and self-

 sufficient nations on earth.

“Eventually, however, having grown accustomed to ease and plenty, too many of its people grew self-indulgent.   Foreigners were quick to exploit this weakness by selling them illicit drugs.

“Drug smugglers established their headquarters in a southern city.  In a matter of years, their poison had

 seeped into virtually every town and village via a weblike distribution system that flourished under the noses of       judges,  politicians and police – sometimes even with their assistance, for drugs can corrupt anyone. 

 "Some intellectuals initially extolled the psychic and medicinal benefits of drugs and minimized their harm.

  Ironically, these intellectuals, along with the rich and privileged, were the first to succumb.  The army was

  next.  The last, most tragic victims were the poor.

 "In the final stages of the plague, addicts whom drugs did not kill outright became susceptible to infectious                   diseases, which they unwittingly spread to loved ones.

“And in time, this once great and noble nation was so withered that it fell victim to countries a fraction of    its size.”

I think it appropriate to pause at this point in Paul Harvey’s dissertation and contemplate what he has just related.

“Now, if you think this story is about 20^th century America, you’re wrong.  This is a capsule account of what actually  happened to China in the 19^th century.

“In the early 1800s, China was among the wealthiest, most self-sufficient nations on earth.  Its rulers had

governed for centuries under an ancient system of ethics set down by the followers of Confucius.  China’s                    very name for   itself, Zhongguo, the ‘Middle Kingdom,’ underscored its glorious position between heaven

and earth.  Nothing could bring it down.

“Except itself.

“Western nations ran up huge trade deficits with China to pay for porcelain, silk and tea.  But China re-                    mained wary  of outsiders and had little interest in purchasing foreign goods.  Thus little could be done to

redress the imbalance of trade . . . until Britain discovered China’s secret taste for opium and began ship-                      ping it into the country from British fields in India. 

"The pernicious drug had been severely restricted by law in 1729, but as imports rose, some scholar-                       officials argued that opium should be ‘decriminalized’ and its distribution regulated by the government. 

Others declared that it was beneficial to a weary psyche and cured stomach ailments. 

“Opium was disparagingly called heitu, ‘black dirt,’ for the tarry substance placed in long bamboo pipes.

 Addicts smoked it while stretched on benches in ‘dens’ not too unlike today’s ‘crack houses.’  In the early

 stages, opium induced euphoria.  But habitual use left victims burnt-out husks of their former selves.  In

 the final stages of addiction, it caused dementia and death. 

"And victims more and more included nonaddicts.  As opium smokers gathered, coughing and spitting,

they unknowingly became infected with, and then spread to others, diseases as deadly in those days as

AIDS is now – tuberculosis and influenza.

”At a time when such pressures as overpopulation, political infighting and declining revenues were also                     taking their toll, addiction raged through China’s army and invaded the civil service.  The effect was a                         rapid decline in provincial administration.  Canals collapsed out of neglect, disrupting China’s vital system

of transportation.  Pushed beyond endurance, the Chinese government closed its doors to all foreign goods                    and destroyed crates of opium stored in British warehouses in Canton.

“England declared war and its navy brutally defeated an inadequate Chinese fleet.  As part of the treaty                    settling the ‘Opium War’ of 1839-42, a shocked and demoralized China ceded the southern island of Hong                 Kong to Britain.  This city, much like Miami, became the hub of the drug trade, from which criminal socie-                   ties, like the Mafia today, joined forces with the foreign smugglers to disperse the drug everywhere.

“Peasant discontent erupted into a massive civil war, called the Taiping Rebellion, which cost as many as                        30 million lives.  Taking advantage of the chaos, England, France, Germany and Russia carved up China                       like a ripe melon.  By the end of the 19^th century, five percent of China’s population was addicted – over

22 million people.  So much bullion flowed out of the country that the economy teetered on the verge of                collapse.  In 1912, the last emperor, Puyi, was forced from the throne. 

“China floundered in the bloody strife of civil war and foreign invasion for almost four decades.  Then Mao

Zedong’s Communists crushed all opposition, taking another 30 million lives and forcing millions out of                      their villages and into communes.  Mao did away with the opium problem – by eliminating the smokers.

“Only recently has China begun to stem its nearly two-century decline, which began with the first self-                 indulgent puff on an opium pipe.

“History records a sad cycle: the great civilizations – Greek, Roman, Spanish and Chinese – fell by their                       own inner weakness before their military forces were vanquished.  And if the United States ever does suc-                 cumb, here too it will have been by our own hand.”

Actually, there were two Opium wars.  The first is covered in the article, but the second was in 1856-60 when France, Germany and Russia joined Britain in taking what was left of China, including a number of ports and creating an International Zone, which they occupied through the later Japanese invasion and World War II.

Shakespeare once said, “What’s past is prologue.”  A comparison of the current drug problems of the United States has some disturbing parallels with China’s 19^th century problem with opium.  I’m not suggesting that the U.S. is doomed to follow the path of China, but as I said, there are some disturbing parallels.  We have had several attempts by American citizens to “decriminalize” marijuana, a position supported by some politicians; during the Viet Nam War marijuana was commonly used by conscripts, though I believe that is no longer a problem in the armed forces; rulings by some judges in drug cases have been uncomfortably liberal; abandoned or unused homes, stores and businesses have had a high probability of becoming crack houses; the police and courts in some communities appear to be reluctant to enforce our drug laws; but the last item is one that appeared in the Sunday Record of August 5, 2007, prepared by Matthew Lee of The Associated Press.  The first two paragraphs of the article will introduce the problem:

                “Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world’s        near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling propos                     als to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

                “As President Bush was preparing for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions          within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed the release of a $475 million counternarcot-            ics  program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban,                    the officials said.”

The article goes on for a half a newspaper page describing the bickering among ourselves and with our allies on why we can’t reduce the flow of Afghan poppy, which has increased by 15 percent since 2006 and now accounts for almost 95 percent of the world’s poppy crop.  Think of it.  Instead of continuing our costly programs of tracking distribution sources and users in the United States and Europe, we could eliminate 95 percent of the opium at the source by shutting down the Afghan poppy fields.   I agree that the probability of this happening is low and will  never happen even if our allies and the Afghans agree on what has to be done and how we will do it.  But say that we only eliminate 50 percent of the crop, or pick your own number.  The savings in victims and budget would be considerable.  Perhaps the savings could be released to provide additional funds for more clinics to treat victims.  That is, of course, if we could keep Congress from spending the savings on more pork, something they habitually do.          

The United States and NATO are spending the lives of our young people, treasure and equipment to drive out the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces from Afghanistan so that the Afghans may live in peace and security.  Instead of bickering among ourselves, we should coordinate our efforts, get the job done and bring the troops home. 

All background information on poppy and opiates was from the Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite CD.  The full text of the article There Was a Nation . . . was taken from the Reader’s Digest, January 1989.  Excerpts from the Sunday Record, August 5, 2007 issue, article on Afghanistan, were included.  Additional reference sources are:  <state.gov/p/inl> and <whitehousedrugpolicy.gov>.  

August 2007