| Time |
Event |
| circa
3000 B.C. |
Opium
poppy was cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. The Sumerians referred to it as Hul Gul, the "joy plant".
They would soon pass along the plant and its euphoric effects to
the Assyrians. The art of poppy-culling would continue
from the Assyrians to the Babylonians who in turn would pass their knowledge
onto the Egyptians.
|
| 1300 B.C. |
In the capital of Thebes,
Egyptians begin cultivation of opium thebacium, grown in their famous poppy
fields. The opium trade flourishes
during the reign of Thutmose IV, Akhenaton and King Tutankhamen.
The trade route included the Phoenicans and Minoans who move the
profitable item across the Mediterranean Sea into Greece, Carthage, and
Europe.
|
| circa 7th to 9th century
A.D. |
Opium introduced to China
by Arab traders. Used only
as medicine in China for next 8-9 centuries.
|
| 1000 |
Ancient Indian medicinal
work namely "Bhavaprakasha" describes the use of opium.
|
| 1300's |
Opium disappears for two
hundred years from European historical record but not from the East where
its usage increased especially amongst soldiers and by medicine men.
Opium had become a taboo subject for those in circles of learning
during the Holy Inquisition. In
the eyes of the Inquisition, anything from the East was linked to the Devil. However, it remained an important ingredient
in many medical mixtures.
|
| 1527 |
Paracelsus
develops laudanum, then a mix of opium, citrus juice and quintessence of
gold and prescribed as painkiller.
In 1680, Laudanum became a mix of opium, sherry wine, and herbs.
|
| 1600's |
Portugese merchants carrying
cargo of Indian opium through Macao direct its trade flow into China.
|
| 1620's-1670's |
Rajput troops fighting
for the Mughals introduce the habit of taking opium to Assam.
Opium is given daily to Rajput soldiers.
|
| 1700's |
The Dutch export shipments
of Indian opium to China and to the islands of Southeast Asia; the Dutch
introduced the practice of smoking opium in a tobacco pipe to the Chinese.
|
| 1729 |
Chinese emperor, Yung
Cheng, issues an edict prohibiting the smoking of opium and its domestic
sale, except under license for use as medicine. However, no edict prohibiting the import
of opium was issued.
|
| 1773 |
The British
East India Company assumes monopoly over all the opium produced in Bengal,
Bihar, and Orissa. Warren Hastings
introduces system of contracts. Contracts for marketing opium were awarded
through auction.
|
| 1793 |
The British East India
Company establishes a monopoly on the opium trade. All poppy growers in India were forbidden
to sell opium to competitor trading companies.
|
| 1796 |
The import of opium into
China becomes illegal. Silver was smuggled out to pay for smuggling in opium.
|
| 1799 |
Chinese emperor, Kia King,
bans opium completely, making trade and poppy cultivation illegal.
|
| 1800 |
The British Levant Company
purchases nearly half of all the opium coming out of Smyma, Turkey strictly
for importation to Europe and the United States.
|
| 1803 |
Friedrich Sertuerner of
Paderborn, Germany discovers the active ingredient of opium by dissolving
it in acid then neutralizing it with ammonia. The result: alkaloids -- Principium
somniferum or morphine. Physicians
believe that ooium had finally been perfected and tamed.
Morphine is lauded as "God's own medicine" for its reliability
as a painkiller, long-lasting allevation and what were then thought less
side effects. |
| 1816 |
John Jacob Astor of New
York City joins the opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchases ten
tons of Turkish opium then ships the contraband item to Canton on the Macedonian.
Astor would later leave the China opium trade and sell solely to
England.
|
| 1819 an on- |
English poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and other English literary personalities experiment with opium
intended for strict recreational use -- simply for a high and taken at extended,
non-addictive intervals.
|
| 1827 |
E.Merck & Company
of Darmstadt, Germany, begins commercial manufacturing of morphine.
|
| 1830 |
The British dependence
on opium for medicinal and recreational use reaches an all time high as
22,000 pounds of opium is imported from Turkey and India.
|
| March 18, 1839 |
Lin Tse-Hsu, Imperial
Chinese Commisioner in charge of suppressing the opium traffic, orders all
foreign traders to surrender their opium. Over 1 million kilograms of opium were
destroyed under his supervision. In
response, the British send expenditionary warships to the coast of Chian,
beginning The First Opium War.
|
| 1840 |
New Englanders bring 24,000
pounds of opium into the United States. This catches the attention of U.S. Customs
which promptly puts a duty free on the import.
|
| 1842 |
The Chinese are defeated
by the British in the First Opium War and forced to sign the treatly of
Nankong, where Hong Kong is ceded to the British.
|
| 1843 |
Dr. Alexander Wood of
Edinburgh discovers a new technique of administering morphine - injecting
with a syringe. Dr. Wood's
wife is alleged the first victim of a morphine overdose using her husband's
method.
|
| 1852 |
The British arrive in
lower Burma, importing large quantities of opium from India and selling
it through a government-controlled opium monopoly.
|
| 1856-1860 |
The British and French
renew their hostilities against China in the Second Opium War, destroying
the Summer Palace in Beijing to end the war. The importation of opium is fully legalized.
|
| 1874 |
In San Francisco, smoking
opium in the city limits is banned and is confined to neighboring Chinatowns
and their opium dens.
|
| 1886 |
The British acquire Burma's
northeast region, the Shan state. Production and smuggling of opium along
the lower region of Burma for
local and Chinese markets thrive despite British efforts to maintain a strict
monopoly on the opium trade.
|
| 1890's |
U.S. Congress, in its
earliest law-enforcement regulation on narcotics, imposes a tax on opium
and morphine. Tabloids owned by William Randolph Hearst publish stories
of white women being seduced by Chinese men and their opium to invoke fear
of the "Yellow Peril", disguised as an anti-drug campaign.
|
| 1895 |
Heinrich Dreser working
for the The Bayer Company of Elberfeld, Germany, finds that diluting morphine
with acetyls produces a drug without the common morphine side effects.
Bayer begins production of diacetylmorphine and coins the name "heroin". Heroin would not be introduced commercially
for another three years.
|
| 1902 |
In various medical journals,
physicians discuss the side effects of using heroin as a morphine step-down
cure. Several physicians argue
that their patients suffered from heroin withdrawal symptoms equal to morphine
addiction.
|
| 1905 |
U.S. Congress bans opium
smoking.
|
| 1906 |
China and England enact
a treaty restricting the Sina-Indian Opium trade.
|
| 1909 |
The first federal drug
prohibition passes the U.S. outlawing the importation of opium.
It was passed in preparation for the Shanghai Conference, at which
the U.S. Presses for legislation aimed at suppressing the sale of opium
to China.
|
| February 1, 1909 |
The International Opium
Commission convenes in Shanghai.
|
| 1912-1917 |
Chinese warlords encourage
China hill tribes to cultivate opium poppy to pay annual opium tax for their
troops and the finance their war efforts. India's export of opium to China banned
in 1917.
|
| 1923 |
The U.S. Treasury Department's
Narcotics Division (the first federal drug agency) bans all legal narcotics
sales. With prohibition of
legal venues to purchase heroin, addicts are forced to buy from illegal
street dealers.
|
| 1931 |
The 1931 Convention for
limiting the manufacture and regulating the distribution of narcotic drugs
signed at Geneva on 13 July 1931. Agreement for the suppression of opium
smoking signed at Bangkok on 27 November 1931.
|
| 1942-1948 |
Opium cultivation and
trade flourishes in the Shan States. Remnants of the Kuamintang Army shelter
in the northeast of Burma and north Thailand, and are helped by the United
States in their fight against the communist Chinese government. They partly finance their resistance
by selling opium, and subsequently heroin. Opium is used for the first time ever to pay soldiers in
northern Burma.
|
| 1948-1972 |
Corsican gangsters dominate
the U.S. Heroin market through their connection with Mafia drug distributors.
After refining the raw Turkish opium in Marseille laboratories, the
heroin is made easily available for purchase by junkies on New York City
streets. In its anti-communist efforts in postwar
France, the U.S. provided support to French groups involved in the narcotics
trade.
|
| 1953 |
The Opium Protocol of
1953 was formulated for limiting and regulating the cultivation of poppy
plant, the production of, international and wholesale trade in and use of opium
signed at New York on 23 June 1953.
Only 7 countries - Bulgaria, Greece, India, Iran, Turkey, USSR, and
Yogoslavia were authorized to produce opium for export.
|
| 1965-1970 |
U.S. Involvement in Vietnam
is blamed for the surge in illegal heroin being smuggled into the States.
To aid U.S. Allies, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sets up
a charter airline, Air America, to transport raw opium from Burma and Laos. As well, some of the opium would be
transported to Marseille by Corsican gangsters to be refined into heroin
and shipped to the U.S. via the French connection. The number of heroin addicts in the U.S. reaches an estimated
750,000.
|
| 1970-1978 |
Saigon falls.
The heroin epidemic subsides.
The search for a new source of raw opium yields Mexico's Sierra Madre. "Mexican Mud" would temporarily replace "China
White" heroin until 1978.
|
| 1978 |
The U.S. and Mexican governments
find a means to eliminate the source of raw opium -- by spraying poppy fields
with Agent Orange. The eradication plan is termed a success
as teh amount of "Mexican Mud" in the U.S. drug market declines.
In reponse to the decrease in availability of "Mexican Mud",
another source of heroin is found the the Golden Crescent Area - Iran, Afghanistan,
and Pakistan, creating a dramatic upsurge in the production and trade of
illegal heroin.
|
| 1988 |
Opiom production in Burma
increases under the rule of the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC), the Burmese junta regime. The single largest heroin seizure is
made in Bangkok. The U.S. Suspects
thatthe 2,400-pound shipment of heroin, en route to New York City, originated
from the Golden Triangle region, controlled by drug warlord, Khun Sa, who
on Granada TV accuses the USA of encouraging opium production.
|
| 1992 |
Columbia's drug lords
introduce high-grade heroin into the United States.
|
| 1995 |
The Golden Triangle region
of the Southeast Asia is now the leader in opium production, yielding 2,500
tons annually. According to U.S. drug experts, there are new drug trafficking
routes from Burma through Laos, to southern China, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
|
| January 1996 |
Khun Sa, on of Shan State's
most powerful drug warlords, "surrenders"
to SLORC. The U.S. Is
suspicious and fears that this agreement between the ruling junta regime
and Khun Sa includes a deal allowing "the opium king" to retain
control of his opium trade but in exchange end his 30-year-old revolution
war agains the government.
|
| 2000 |
Afghanistan replaces Burma
as the leading producer of illegal opium.
|
