Opium Law Research Paper

During the 19th century, China transformed from a prosperous economic center to a weakened country in a system controlled by Great Britain, largely due to the opium trade. Prior to Europe’s industrial revolution in 1800, China had little need for products from other countries, and participated sparingly in world trade, while Europe borrowed China’s ideas and inventions to gain a financial foothold. But in the 19th century Britain introduced opium into the Chinese market, setting off a chain of events that lead to the Opium Wars, which along with the opium trade sapped China’s economic strength. Nevertheless, she persisted, and in 1907 China passed a law that blocked the opium trade once and for all and took out Britain’s system of power within

Opium use during the 17th and 18th century the use of opiates was positive and no one saw the harmful effects it could bring. Morphine, heroin, and oxycontin were widely used for helping with pain. In the turn of the 19th century people were having concerns of the side effects of these opiate drugs as well as the health risks that these drugs were bringing about. These drugs were highly addictive and once people were hooked onto the opiate it was very hard to get them off and this was leading to deaths and this was scaring people. Eventually in the 20th century the government saw the risks involved with legal drug use and they started putting regulation over the opiates. They would make the drugs illegal and if people were caught using they

I can’t speak for the entire State of Texas but Travis County drug court is making a positive impact on offenders’ lives. Two judges who manage Travis County’s drug court are directing addicts into a court supervised treatment program instead of incarceration. Drug courts like the one in Travis County have successfully handled nonaggressive defendants with drug and alcohol addictions. People who complete drug court programs rarely fall back into substance abuse. Per four drug-court judges surveyed, about 10 percent of program graduates commit new crimes. That’s a recidivism rate of one-fifth that of traditional probation programs. Which shows drug courts can ease the strain on congested penitentiaries and save taxpayer money. A study done by

by African Americans, especially in the south. "It has been speculated that, in order to overcome this resistance from southerners during this time, a propaganda campaign was launched that associated African Americans with cocaine", (Levinthal, 2012, p. 55). This fueled the fire towards racism against African Americans and the Chinese, as the Chinese are assumed to have brought opium to the U.S. after the Civil War. Contrary to opium alone, morphine was identified to be the active ingredient in opium in the 1840's, and cocaine was widely used by pharmaceutical companies in various forms. Therefore, cocaine and morphine were the two most common drugs used in patent medicines and Americans believed that cocaine and opium contributed to crimes being committed by African Americans and the Chinese (Levinthal,

Putting in charge of developing a drug court it is dream come true because I have always eager to help people overcome any obstacles they deal with in the life. Being a drug addict is something very serious and that cause you to lose your dignity, money and loves ones because once you addicted to the drugs you will go the extreme miles to get that drug and it will become a necessity instead of a need for you. Since I have been putting in charge of developing a new drug court that can help someone, I must first discuss how I will develop that court and criteria but first before discussing the who is eligible, who is not eligible, and the elements of how the drug court will consist of but first I have to explain what is a drug court and provide

For my Civic Engagement project, I plan on studying and learning more about Drug Courts. After reading about drug courts in the state courts chapter and after watching the video, A Better Deal, about the nations first drug court, I immediately got hooked on the topic and wanted to learn more about the court in depth. Before we go more in depth about the topic, let’s take a step back and ask, “What is drug court and what is the purpose for it?” Drug court is a specialized court, meaning it is it’s own court. Drug court is a diversionary program that offers offenders a second chance to correct their drug problems and also offers an alternative route rather than going to prison for breaking the law due to their drug abuse. The goal for drug courts

Xu’s memorandum advocates for the government allowing opium to be brought into China by foreign traders as a taxable good as the best way to combat the opium problem. Xu views strict laws against opium as ineffectual for tackling the drug problem in China, noting in the first paragraph that, “the more severe the interdicts against [opium] are made, the more widely do the evils arising therefrom spread” (Xu page 1). While he acknowledges the addictive and destructive effects of opium on those who use it, Xu believes that the stricter the laws proscribing the dissemination and use of opium, the more widely used the drug becomes. Xu argues that the prohibitions against the opium trade led to increased smuggling by foreign traders and increased use of the drug across China. Conversely, when the state’s policy towards opium was one of leniency, in which opium was allowed into China and taxed as a medicine, the issues involving opium were

Users of the substance were addicted but they were also able to function and go back to work on the weekday. Law makers passed ordinances pertaining to smoking of opium in opium dens because they noticed that white females were gravitating to opium dens at increasing rates (Bobo & Thompson, 2006). The lawmakers suspected that the Chinese immigrants were having sexual relations with the white women. This anti-opium ordinance for the state of California led to Congress passing a nationwide law.

According to Levinthal (2012), the importation of Chinese workers affected the United States harshly. Initially, the government imported Chinese workers for cheap labor; however, opium habits followed the importation. Powell & Brecher (2016) states, the Chinese were targets for introducing the opium drug into the United States. Furthermore, the government banned the Chinese from importing the drug however was unable to stop everyone.

In 1838, the Ch’ing government began to take the illegal opium trade more seriously as they noted the debilitating effect opium smoking was having on its people. Commissioner Lin was appointed by the Emperor to stop the illegal importation of opium. Lin

Until the early 20th century, Americans were legally able to obtain drugs such as cocaine, cannabis, and heroin. In fact, these types of drugs were found in medicines and drinks such as Coca-Cola. By the early 1900s, between 250,000-500,000 Americans were addicted to drugs. This rise of addiction in the United States created a growing public concern that addiction would become a more widespread issue, and they felt this problem needed a government solution. For example, in 1875, the first restrictive legislation concerning drugs began in San Francisco when a law was passed to limit the use of opium dens in public indoor establishments. Almost 100 years later, the Controlled Substance Act was passed in 1970. Shortly after, Richard Nixon declared

Introduction - Use of psychoactive substances for recreational purposes is not a radically new social issue. In fact, history tells us that almost every society had their own pharmacopeia of herbs, potions, and substances that not only contributed to healing, but also allowed the user to escape reality (Schules 1992, 4-5). However, it is the contemporary use of psychoactive drugs purchased through illicit or illegal channels and used by persons neither prescribed nor in quantities larger than necessary that defines modern drug abuse (Robins 2006). Prior to World War I, substances like morphine, heroin, and cocaine were available in the major American cities, particularly those with active international ports. For instance, when Chinese immigrants were first imported to work in the mines and railroads during the early 1800s, they brought opium to America. It was the leisure class, who began to experiment with this drug, and, as in Europe, many major U.S. cities had so-called opium dens. In addition, there were a substantial number of "society women" who ended up addicted because their doctor prescribed this drug to deal with female histrionics or to "cure" an excessive sexual appetite (Johnson 2002). Within major cities, this problem began to spill over into other groups: prostitutes, child laborers, orphans, and even men and women of lower social classes seeking to escape the harshness of their lives (Courtwright 2002, 3-19). Between the widespread use and general

In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act, that was years in the making was finally passed under President Roosevelt. This law reflected a sea change in medicine-- an unprecedented wave of regulations. No longer could drug companies have a secret formula and hide potentially toxic substances such as heroin under their patent. The law required drug companies to specify the ingredients of medications on the label. It also regulated the purity and dosage of substances. Not by mere coincidence was the law passed only about five years after Bayer, a German based drug company began selling the morphine derivative, heroin. Thought to be a safe, non-habit forming alternative to morphine, heroin quickly became the “cure-all drug” that was used to treat

Opium was first introduced in China by the Turkish and Arab traders and although at first it was used in limited quantities, a trend of opium smoking became quite fashionable and swept through China. This lead to a rapid increase in addiction and opium export and this instigated some of the first government prohibitions in 1723, but the opium trade continued to flourish. At the same time in Britain there was a high demand for Chinese silks and porcelain, but above all tea, because tea at the time only came from China. Due to this, China had a considerable amount of power over Britain. Britain had an insatiable greed for tea and made enormous demands for it at the time and solely because of this they ended up having to pay almost $6 million silver dollars every year to China. The only other commodity that the Chinese desired besides this was Opium. The British found that they could grow poppies in abundance in India and so the British began bartering tea with opium. This became a way of balancing the trade deficit and the Chinese seemed to have no issue in depleting their silver reserves for opium. This lead to detrimental effects on Chinese society, economy and public health as widespread addiction was caused due to the

As the progressive era of the United States came to an end, the abuse of drugs and alcohol began to reach all-time highs. Dr. Hamilton Wright declared that the "Of all the nations of the world, the United States consumes most habit-forming drugs per capita.” and with statistics like 470,000 pounds of drugs consumed annually, more than France and the UK combined, it was clear to the US government that something would have to be done soon. This would come in the form of the historic Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 which would assist in banning opiates and cocaine, and limiting other drugs being imported in. The Act would be the first in a series of prohibitions over the next few decades, most notably Prohibition in 1920. However these would prove ineffective to doing anything they set out to do, including curbing the number of current addicts. The only attempt at assistance would come in the form of special hospital wards in major cities or inebriation farms, like in Florida or Kentucky. Both these venues would prove harmful to those who entered into their care as practices at the time were brutal. In hospitals lobotomies and sterilizations had become popular due to it being a seemingly easy way to remove mental illness or to keep it from spreading to others. Inebriation farms meanwhile treated