A Review of Milk of Paradise : A History of Opium
|
Kongbrailatpam Rajeshwar Sharma
Contd from last Saturday
Under the leadership of Robert Clive, the East India Company not only took control of Bengal after defeating the Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey but it also “placed Britain in control of the major opium-growing regions of Patna, Benares, Behar and Malwa.” Moreover the Indian cotton and opium were in high demand in China. So the British East India Company established in Canton “an equitable trade exchange.” In her book, Lucy Inglis writes “It was the beginning of a trade exchange that had disastrous results for China.”
Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium is divided into three parts. In the third part of her book, Lucy Inglis dwells on heroin “the most successful illegal” synthetic drug that emerged out of a research laboratory as another avatar of opium. Half a century after Freiderich Wilhelm Serturner, a German chemist discovered the “active substance Morphium from opium latex” in 1817, the conception of heroin began at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, where two young chemists worked together to find “a form of painkiller that wasn’t as addictive as morphine.” Augustus Matthiessen, one of the two chemists, committed suicide in 1870 before they could synthesize the drug. In spite of the death of his colleague, Charles Romley Alder Wright, the other chemist, continued working alone. In 1874 he was able to synthesize diacetylmorphine which is popularly known as heroin. However F.M Pierce, a London doctor who tested the synthesized drug, “failed to make comparative tests with standard morphine, so diacetylmorphine didn’t seem any more or less effective, and was thus discarded as yet another failure.”
In 1898 at Bayer, a German pharmaceutical company, a research chemist named Heinrich Dreser “who is often credited–wrongly–with the invention of heroin” published two papers on “the pharmacology of derivatives” and the other on “the effect of some morphine derivatives on respiration” It revealed that he had been looking for a drug, “specifically, in the diacetylmorphine experiments”, that would treat advanced lung disease. To his surprise, it was found from “studies on sufferers” that diacetylmorphine “really did stop them coughing, made them feel calm, and as a sedative, helped them get a good night’s sleep” With the success of the synthesized drug in the treatment of TB patients, Dreser named his company’s diacetylmorphine preparation as “diamorphine” which was given the brand name “Heroin”. It was then put in for patent and granted in 1899.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the American Civil War (1861 to 1865) had left 620,000 men dead and thousands wounded. During the war, the Union Army “issued almost 10 million opium pills and 2.841 million ounces of other opiates in 1865” to help the wounded soldiers reduce their excruciating pains.
Subsequently in the years that followed, it was noticed that there was a striking rise in the number of morphine addicts among the war veterans many of whom had been administered opium pills or morphine to relieve pain in the amputation of their limbs. Morphine addiction was so widespread and common among the war veterans that it came to be known as “the army disease”.
The scourge of morphine and heroin addiction persists till date. After diacetylmorphine or heroin was synthesized in 1874, the term “narcomanias” was introduced to refer to the heroin addicts. Heroin addictions and deaths due to overdose were more often reported in America than not in late 19th century. In 1903 a London junior doctor, Sophie Frances Hickman was found dead in Richmond Park “next to intravenous morphine paraphernalia.” During the Vietnam War in the early seventies of the 20th century, a report to the Congress claimed that “15 per cent of US troops serving in Vietnam were addicted to drugs, especially heroin.” The report prompted President Richard Nixon to announce a “new offensive” on drug trade at a press conference. In 1971 the notorious phrase “the Golden Triangle” was coined by Vice Secretary of State Marshall Green to refer to the triangle of Laos, Burma and Thailand, where more than “1000 tons of raw opium” were harvested every year by 1968-69.
Although Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium is exhaustive in providing detailed information with regard to opium and poppy, Lucy Inglis, its author, does not make any reference to the extension of the Golden Triangle towards the West along the India-Myanmar border. Nor does she mention about the Burmese drug lord Khun Sa who controlled nearly 70 per cent of world’s heroin supply. However Lucy Inglis writes as well about the alleged involvement of CIA in the drug trade. She writes, “Nevertheless, there is the inescapable fact that it (CIA) was present and using Air America as a front, dealing with the Hmong who used opiates as hard currency, and hence in all likelihood the US was involved in establishing the Golden Triangle on which President Nixon declared war on 17 June 1971.” Since then there has been no winner but drug lords.
**K. Rajeshwar Sharma is a freelancer. You can reach him at [email protected]
Contd from last Saturday
Under the leadership of Robert Clive, the East India Company not only took control of Bengal after defeating the Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey but it also “placed Britain in control of the major opium-growing regions of Patna, Benares, Behar and Malwa.” Moreover the Indian cotton and opium were in high demand in China. So the British East India Company established in Canton “an equitable trade exchange.” In her book, Lucy Inglis writes “It was the beginning of a trade exchange that had disastrous results for China.”
Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium is divided into three parts. In the third part of her book, Lucy Inglis dwells on heroin “the most successful illegal” synthetic drug that emerged out of a research laboratory as another avatar of opium. Half a century after Freiderich Wilhelm Serturner, a German chemist discovered the “active substance Morphium from opium latex” in 1817, the conception of heroin began at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, where two young chemists worked together to find “a form of painkiller that wasn’t as addictive as morphine.” Augustus Matthiessen, one of the two chemists, committed suicide in 1870 before they could synthesize the drug. In spite of the death of his colleague, Charles Romley Alder Wright, the other chemist, continued working alone. In 1874 he was able to synthesize diacetylmorphine which is popularly known as heroin. However F.M Pierce, a London doctor who tested the synthesized drug, “failed to make comparative tests with standard morphine, so diacetylmorphine didn’t seem any more or less effective, and was thus discarded as yet another failure.”
In 1898 at Bayer, a German pharmaceutical company, a research chemist named Heinrich Dreser “who is often credited–wrongly–with the invention of heroin” published two papers on “the pharmacology of derivatives” and the other on “the effect of some morphine derivatives on respiration” It revealed that he had been looking for a drug, “specifically, in the diacetylmorphine experiments”, that would treat advanced lung disease. To his surprise, it was found from “studies on sufferers” that diacetylmorphine “really did stop them coughing, made them feel calm, and as a sedative, helped them get a good night’s sleep” With the success of the synthesized drug in the treatment of TB patients, Dreser named his company’s diacetylmorphine preparation as “diamorphine” which was given the brand name “Heroin”. It was then put in for patent and granted in 1899.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the American Civil War (1861 to 1865) had left 620,000 men dead and thousands wounded. During the war, the Union Army “issued almost 10 million opium pills and 2.841 million ounces of other opiates in 1865” to help the wounded soldiers reduce their excruciating pains.
Subsequently in the years that followed, it was noticed that there was a striking rise in the number of morphine addicts among the war veterans many of whom had been administered opium pills or morphine to relieve pain in the amputation of their limbs. Morphine addiction was so widespread and common among the war veterans that it came to be known as “the army disease”.
The scourge of morphine and heroin addiction persists till date. After diacetylmorphine or heroin was synthesized in 1874, the term “narcomanias” was introduced to refer to the heroin addicts. Heroin addictions and deaths due to overdose were more often reported in America than not in late 19th century. In 1903 a London junior doctor, Sophie Frances Hickman was found dead in Richmond Park “next to intravenous morphine paraphernalia.” During the Vietnam War in the early seventies of the 20th century, a report to the Congress claimed that “15 per cent of US troops serving in Vietnam were addicted to drugs, especially heroin.” The report prompted President Richard Nixon to announce a “new offensive” on drug trade at a press conference. In 1971 the notorious phrase “the Golden Triangle” was coined by Vice Secretary of State Marshall Green to refer to the triangle of Laos, Burma and Thailand, where more than “1000 tons of raw opium” were harvested every year by 1968-69.
Although Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium is exhaustive in providing detailed information with regard to opium and poppy, Lucy Inglis, its author, does not make any reference to the extension of the Golden Triangle towards the West along the India-Myanmar border. Nor does she mention about the Burmese drug lord Khun Sa who controlled nearly 70 per cent of world’s heroin supply. However Lucy Inglis writes as well about the alleged involvement of CIA in the drug trade. She writes, “Nevertheless, there is the inescapable fact that it (CIA) was present and using Air America as a front, dealing with the Hmong who used opiates as hard currency, and hence in all likelihood the US was involved in establishing the Golden Triangle on which President Nixon declared war on 17 June 1971.” Since then there has been no winner but drug lords.
**K. Rajeshwar Sharma is a freelancer. You can reach him at [email protected]