Opium : how an ancient flower shaped and poisoned our world /
Opioid addiction is fast becoming the most deadly crisis in American history. In 2017, it claimed nearly fifty thousand lives, more than gunshots and car crashes combined, and almost as many Americans as were killed in the entire Vietnam War. But even as the overdose crisis ravages our nation, strai...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Hachette Books,
[2019]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
Table of Contents:
- Part 1. Opium in antiquity. The mysterious origins of the opium poppy ; Papyruses and poppies ; A journey around the Mediterranean. Part 2. Opium and the birth of modern medicine. Classic cures, ancient addictions ; A little light on the "Dark Ages" ; Opium's golden age ; The monarch of medicine. Part 3. Opium goes global. Marco Polo and the rise of global commerce ; "The spice trade was in reality the drug trade" ; The two most addictive drugs on Earth ; The spice race ; The queen and her company ; A 5,000-year tradition of medicine and moderation
- Opening the China market ; Great Britain "invades" China
- Trading opium in Canton : "the complicated machinery of evasion". Part 4. The opium wars. Two letters that could have prevented a war ; Five roads to war ; The first drug war. Part 5. The agony and the ecstasy. America enters the opium business ; Generosity and greed ; Americans try growing their own ; Good intentions, tragic results ; The agony and the ecstasy. Part 6. Laws and disorder. America's first failed drug laws ; Drug hysteria and race-based enforcement : the Harry Anslinger story ; The war nobody's ever won ; The $1 trillion question : what do we do now?