Wednesday 23 April 2008

Historical Perspectives: Opium, Morphine and Opiates (Part 1)

In this Briefing, we trace the history of the opiates, from use in Summarian and Assyrian civilisations through to the Opium wars between China and Britain and the cultural impact of opium smoking by Chinese in the Californian gold fields.

‘It was estimated that between 16,000 and 26,000 shops sold opiates in Britain in the 1850s. One London chemist had 378 different opiate preparations on his shelf.’

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