Drugging a Nation: The Story of China and the Opium Curse

The author conducts a first-hand investigation of the opium trade in China, combining travel reportage, interviews, statistics, and historical context to trace poppy cultivation, distribution networks, and habitual smoking across provinces. He documents how widespread production and consumption debilitate communities, describes opium dens, receiving ships, and government factories, and examines reform efforts and an imperial edict aiming at abolition. Attention focuses on major ports and provinces and on the role of foreign commerce and British policy in sustaining the trade, while exploring practical and political obstacles to enforcement and the social and economic consequences for Chinese society.