Lovell, Julia (2012). The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China. Picador. ISBN 978-1-4472-0410-7. ( Kindle version) Despite the new ports available for trade under the Treaty of Nanking, by 1854 Britain's imports from China had reached nine times their exports to the country. At the same time British imperial finances came under further pressure from the expense of administering the burgeoning colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore in addition to India. Only the latter's opium could balance the deficit. [31] Along with various complaints about the treatment of British merchants in Chinese ports and the Qing government's refusal to accept further foreign ambassadors, the relatively minor "Arrow Incident" provided the pretext the British needed to expand their opium trade in China.

Spence, Jonathan D. (2013). The Search for Modern China. New York: Norton. ISBN 9780393934519. pp. 244–245. Baumler 2001, p.1-2: "Although many of the specific techniques they used were similar to those of the Nationalists, the Communist anti-opium campaigns were carried out in the context of the successful effort to use mass campaigns to bring all aspects of local life under control, and thus the Communists were considerably more successful than were the Nationalists. Opium and drug use would not be a problem again in China until the post-Mao era."The International Opium Commission observed that opium smoking was a fashionable, even refined pastime, especially among the young, yet many in society condemned the habit. [21] At this time the act of opium smoking was prevalent among students, soldiers, urban middle class, and wealthier peasants. One of the most influential groups was the sex industry that dominated the scene as the combination of both opium smoking and sex was the favoured pastime. [21] In 1907 Great Britain signed a treaty agreeing to gradually eliminate opium exports to China over the next decade while China agreed to eliminate domestic production over that period. Estimates of domestic production fell from 35,000 metric tons (34,000 long tons) in 1906 to 4,000 metric tons (3,900 long tons) in 1911. The first problem for do-it-yourself growers is that it would be hard to plant enough poppies to make an appreciable amount of drug without being noticed, Wankel said. The plants can grow more than 3 feet (0.9 meters) tall and are topped with brightly colored flowers that look a bit like frilly tulips. Any reasonably sized plot of these flowers would easily stand out in terrestrial or aerial surveys done by law enforcement agencies, Wankel said. Felbab-Brown, Vanda (2009). "The Political Economy of Illegal Domains in India and China". The International Lawyer. 43 (4): 1411–1428. ISSN 0020-7810. JSTOR 40708079. But although opium poppy provided a source of funding for Mao's opponents, and although ideologically it was an anathema to him, Mao too did not attempt to interfere with the poppy economy during his insurgency years. Large segments of the population were dependent upon the poppy economy, and Mao was in turn in need of the rural population's support, or at least its tolerance of his anti-Chiang Kai-shek insurgency. Over time, not only did Mao tolerate poppy cultivation, he actually came to tax it as well. McMahon, Keith (2002). The Fall of the God of Money: Opium Smoking in Nineteenth-Century China. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0742518027.

a b Hevia, James Louis (2003). "Opium, Empire, and Modern History" (PDF). China Review International. 10 (2): 307–326. doi: 10.1353/cri.2004.0076. ISSN 1527-9367. S2CID 143635262. Peter Ward Fay (9 November 2000). The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. University of North Carolina Press. pp.290–. ISBN 978-0-8078-6136-3. Baumler, Alan (2007). The Chinese and Opium under the Republic: Worse Than Floods and Wild Beasts. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791469538. World Health Organisation. Information sheet on opioid overdose Online: World Health Organisation; 2018A North Carolina man was arrested last month when police discovered an acre of opium poppies growing in his yard. McLean, David (2006). "Surgeons of The Opium War: The Navy on the China Coast, 1840-42". The English Historical Review. 121 (491): 487–504. doi: 10.1093/ehr/cel005. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 3806140. As you reduce the supply of prescription drugs, addicts aren't going to stop using," Cicero told Live Science. "Rather, they're going to switch to something else."

Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the Forbidden City. Indeed, he flouts the law! a b Chen, Song-Chuan (1 January 2017). Merchants of War and Peace: British Knowledge of China in the Making of the Opium War. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-988-8390-56-4. JSTOR j.ctt1k3s9gv. The side-effects of laudanum were expanded upon by surgeon George Young, who wrote in 1753: ‘Everybody knows a large dose of laudanum will kill, so need not be cautioned on that head; but there are few who consider it a slow poison, though it certainly is.’ Its addictive qualities were noticed particularly in women, who, according to French doctor J. Hector St John de Crèvecœur, were ‘taking a dose of opium every morning, and so deep-rooted is it that they would be at a loss how to live without this indulgence’.

Opium is a depressant drug, which means it slows down the messages travelling between your brain and body. It is derived from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) and is one of the earliest plants recorded for medicinal use. 1 Evidence of opium cultivation by the Sumerian people dates to 3400BCE, although some scholars believe opium use predates Sumerian culture. 2