Opium Research Paper

During 1984 through 1994, 10 years into The Crack Epidemic, the homicide rate of African American males aged 14-17 doubled. Along with an increase of African American children in foster care, fetal death rates and weapon arrests. Roles lost in families and the community. Health and lifestyle of the African American communities depleting due to the powerful affects of crack cocaine. The African American community has been significantly affected by The Crack Epidemic in the areas of health and culture as a result of where the source of crack cocaine introduced itself in America, laws surrounding crack cocaine and the perception of the drug.

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

Drug use has surrounded us as a species since the stone age. The first references of alcohol were found within ancient Chinese civilizations, which date to roughly 9,000 years ago (McGovern, et al.). The original sources for these alcohols were rice and millet. One of the first surgical anesthetics used was opium. It is believed that some of the first Sumerian clay tablets contained basic prescriptions of opium for pain relief. Many Arabic cultures also used opium for diseases and issues relating to gastrointestinal issues and eye abnormalities (McGovern, et al.). Whether drugs were used for recreational purposes or for medicinal uses is left in the history.

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.

The earliest reference to opium growth and use is in 3,400 B.C. when the opium poppy was

Heroin was invented in the 1895. (“Opium Throughout History”) It was a new concoction based on morphine, similar to the then popular laudanum, and was initially meant to be used as a cheaper medical substitute at the time. Heroin was never successfully brought into the medical fold, but was popular as a recreational drug almost immediately. Opiates, in one form or another, have been used for medical pain relief and recreationally since as early as 3400 BC. (“Opium throughout History”) Throughout the history of opium, control, regulation, trade, and addiction have been struggles for every society and civilization, starting with the Egyptians, hitting the Romans, the Chinese, and the Portuguese on the way, and continues to be a struggle in every modern society in the world. (“World Drug Report 2010”)

Opium was in lockdown from May 20th – July 27th 2156. Almost everyone was poisoned at El Patron's funeral. The story is that El Patron told Mr. Alacrán that on his 150th birthday, everyone would drink this wine, but if he didn't live that long, they would drink it at his funeral. Well, El Patron didn’t live to be 150 years old, so at his funeral, everyone drank the wine. No surprise, the wine was poisoned.

It is necessary to provide a little background on the primary drug being discussed, heroin. Opium is not a new drug; it has been used in eastern cultures as far back as the Neolithic age. It was used then similarly as other opium based drugs today are used to control pain. Opium could be taken orally or by smoking it, both produce similar effects.

References to opium as “the herb of joy” appear described in ancient Samarian Tablets excavated in what is now Iraq, dating from about 5000 BCE.(2006, Lee) It went from Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians back to the island of Cyprus. Approximately 460 BC Hyppocrates “Father of Medicine”, used opium to treat disease and epidemics. Opium is definitely the oldest drug in the world.

Globalization becomes an important aspect in women lives who are victims of the system. The women decide to leave their countries and migrate to a different country in order to have better life and opportunities. As the globalization has an important part of women opportunities. And in many third world countries many women migrate to different countries like U.S where they can have a better life. But they need to leave their families and in some cases their children. The women are able to have a work in U.S. The women can work in different jobs like in daycare or homecare, and also the women are able to take training in order to get a certificate. The women work in various manual labor because the U.S. have a plenty opportunities for them.

First, the origin of Opium within the Renaissance Era will be discussed. "Opium poppy spread from its original homeland somewhere between the Western Mediterranean and Asia Minor into southern Europe in Neolithic times and spread across the Middle East and Asia. Arabs were the main traders of opium on global trade routes and within the eastern Mediterranean until Venice rose as the premier Mediterranean commercial hub by the 13th/14th centuries, and with it took over the trade in what was at this time still a wholly legal substance, largely used as a

Religion is said to be the opiate of the masses, and it is definitely a point of interest in George Orwell's famous novel Animal Farm. In it, Orwell pointedly attacks religion in general and Christianity in particular through the use of a well placed symbolic bird by the name of Moses. Orwell's stance is rather apparent as Moses darts about the farm scene conveying the duality of Christianity quite superbly.

During the 18th century, the British began trading opium to the Chinese. They had finally found a commodity the Chinese were willing to buy. Opium was an illicit drug with addictive properties. As demand on opium increased, the British traders made huge profits and the trade imbalance was reversed. There was now a steady flow of silver leaving China. In 1796, the Ch’ing government banned the importation of opium. This did not stop the British, who continued the trade illegally. As well, extensive corruption amongst Chinese officials allowed the opium trade to flourish.

Opium- an addictive drug originally used as a painkiller. It is obtained from the unripe seeds of the opium poppy and can be made into substances that a person can smoke causing relaxation, alleviated anxiety, and a state of euphoria. Continued use of the drug also induces deterioration to the mind and body of a person eventually causing death. The substance was therefore stated illegal in China during the late 18th Century yet consistently smuggled into the country via British merchant ships. As the Chinese placed more restrictions on trade in an effort to abolish the importation of opium, the battle against the drug raged on until war was unavoidable between England and China. It is this war that lasted from 1839-1842

Until the late 1980s, Myanmar was the world’s largest producer of opium with an average annual production of about 700 metric tons of opium between 1981 and 1987 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2016). Apart of the golden Triangle, consisting of 367,000 square miles that includes the countries of Laos and Thailand, Kokang and the Wa Region have always been major poppy growing areas in Shan State of Myanmar. These regions as a whole produced 70 per cent of Myanmar’s opium output. Production of opium is attractive to impoverished farmers as the financial return from poppy is 17 times more than that of rice. (Skidmore, Wilson, 2007) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2016). Despite the importance of the cultivation of opium to this region, it’s production has varied dramatically over time. Two-thousand and six in particular, experienced a fall in production similarly to the year of 1999(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2016). Although there are multiple actors that have been continuous beneficiaries of the production of opium, some of these very actors partook in the combined efforts of the international crackdown on opium. There have been very few efforts in attempting to explain why the variation in opium production exists by scholars who have studied the region. Some have argued that the decrease in production beginning in 2002-2006 was done to conform to international