How did a ban on tobacco lead to opium smoking?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 15, 2002
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The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum Linnaeus) is native to southeastern Europe and western Asia. Crude opium has been used as a sleep-inducer and misused as a narcotic for thousands of years. Nicholas Culpeper (The English Physitian, 1652) recommended opium to treat epilepsy, insomnia, headaches, and agues (fevers).
He closed his treatise on the poppy with "The Herb is Lunar, and of the Juyce of it is made Opium, only for lucre of Money they cheat you, and tell you 'tis a kind of Tear, or some such like thing that drops from Poppies when they weep, and that is some where beyond the Sea, I know not where, beyond the Moon."
Opium was a trade good carried on the Silk Road to India and China, but it was never a major item. Jewels, ceramics, and spices were considered far more valuable as cargo on camels. In the Far East, opium's use remained modest until the advent of sea travel. Even though Westerners knew of opium's addiction, it became a major item carried by ship into Chinese ports.
According to Walter Lewis and Memory Elvin-Lewis (Medical Botany, 1977), "In the view of the last Ming emperor [Chong Zhen] (1628-1644), it was not opium that was evil but the American plant called tobacco, being smoked by so many of his people. He forbid the use of tobacco, and gradually more and more opium was mixed with the New World plant; eventually only pure opium was smoked, from specially made pipes. Thus the Chinese introduced the world to opium smoking."
California State University at Hayward has an informative page about opium use and addiction among the Chinese uncovered from the Yema-po archaeological site outside San Francisco. To learn more, click on the link:
Click here to learn more
Series: | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What flower caused China to lose Hong Kong? Plants that Changed History - July 15, 2001
What did the beautiful opium poppy give and take away? Herbal Folklore - August 20, 2001
What Chinese plant gives us so much more than just food? Plants that Changed History - 10/02/01
What was the First Opium War? Plants that Changed History - October 22, 2002
How did a ban on tobacco lead to opium smoking? Plants that Changed History - October 15, 2002
What was a pain-killer of last resort? Herbal Folklore - October 14, 2002
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