Hong Kong Junk: Plague and the Economy of Chinese Things.

Histories of the Third Plague Pandemic, which diffused globally from China in the 1890s, have tended to focus on colonial efforts to regulate the movement of infected populations, on the state's draconian public health measures, and on the development of novel bacteriological theories of disease causation. In contrast, this article focuses on the plague epidemic in Hong Kong and examines colonial preoccupations with Chinese "things" as sources of likely contagion. In the 1890s, laboratory science invested plague with a new identity as an object to be collected, cultivated, and depicted in journals. At the same time, in the increasingly vociferous anti-opium discourse, opium was conceived as a contagious Chinese commodity: a plague. The article argues that rethinking responses to the plague through the history of material culture can further our understanding of the political consequences of disease's entanglement with economic and racial categories, while demonstrating the extent to which colonial agents "thought through things."

On the history of opium / Z dziejów opium.

Most likely, opium was the first narcotic substance discovered at the dawn of humankind. The history of drug addiction is immensely rich and allows for tracing the long way humankind had to travel to reach the contemporary level of consciousness with respect to narcotic substances. A retrospective view of drug addiction that takes into consideration the historical context, while extending our knowledge, also allows for a better understanding of today's problems. The report presents elements of a retrospective view of problems associated with addiction to opium, morphine and heroin over the centuries, what is a subject of scientific interest in contemporary toxicology.

Thomas de Quincey and his restless legs symptoms as depicted in "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater".

Thomas de Quincey, a British writer of 19th century, suffered insomnia from the age of 17 years. In his famous "Confessions of an English-Opium Eater" (1822), he described a symptomatology that could concord with restless legs syndrome long before he became addicted to opium. In this report, we analyze his clinical description and the circumstances leading to his opium addiction.

[Eradication of opium smoking in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945)].

Eradication of opium smoking during the Japanese colonial period is one of the most proud medical accomplishments in Taiwan. The mission was accomplished mainly due to a governmental policy of gradual prohibition in 1897 and the establishment of the Government Center Hospital for Opium Addicts in 1930. Professor Tsungming Tu, medical director of the Government Center Hospital, was responsible for the unique medical treatment of opium addiction there. The latter consisted of an immediate withdrawal of opium smoking which was partly substituted by small amounts of morphine in gradual reduction, and at the same time special pills were given to enhance the sympathetic activity also to lessen the withdrawal symptoms. By such treatment, the habit of opium smoking could often be eliminated in a few weeks. The success rate was 46%. Shortly after the World War II, the number of opium smokers in Taiwan became negligible. In early colonial period, however, there were grass roots movements as well as private efforts by physicians of Western medicine to treat opium addiction. In 1898, the Flying Phoenix Society which was a laymen organization worshipping deities began to use supernatural power to force the addicts to stop opium smoking. More than thirty thousand were enlisted and the success rate was 58%. In 1908, the enthabitual treatment in a private correction infirmary called 'Newmatou' consisted of a substitute treatment using morphine to replace opium and a gradual reduction in morphine dosage afterwards. All addicts were hospitalized until treatment goal was achieved. Among 55 addicts thus treated, 53 (96%) were ridded of opium smoking habit. The treatment method was almost identical to that employed by Professor Tu. Another physician, Dr. Ching-yue Lin, who worked at the Red Cross Hospital in Taipei, also used substitute treatment, replacing opium by heroine, and obtained a success rate of 80%. Dr. Lin published his comprehensive study on opium addiction and treatment in the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association in 1908. Therefore, Dr. Tu's enthabitual treatment seemed to be not so unique. Previous treatments employed by physicians at 'Newmatou' infirmary and by Dr. Lin at the Red Cross Hospital were strikingly similar or nearly the same. This review may help us reassess the prevailing opinion regarding the history of eliminating opium smoking in Taiwan.

Economic manifestations of opiate addiction: evidence from historical data from colonial Indonesia.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, using an example, the utility of historical data to illuminate important questions in the field of drug dependence research. The literature on the consumption of addictive substances often characterizes users as being one of two types: "addicts" and "casual users." An econometric characterization of the responses of opium consumers in the late-colonial Netherlands Indies to changes in the price of opium and other important variables is provided, which explicitly acknowledges the existence of different types of opium smokers, as modeled in the underlying theory. The results reveal systematic differences between the behavior of groups of high-intensity consumers and groups of low-intensity consumers. While the findings show that both groups showed similar total price elasticities, the high-intensity consumers were affected predominantly via changes in the number of users rather than in per capita consumption. In the course of the analysis, various analytic methods that are new to the field of drug dependence research are introduced.

[The national anti-opium-smoking campaigns across the country in the Republican Period].

Anti-opium-smoking had been the key policy of successive central and local governments from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican Period. Since the establishment of the Nanjing Provisional Government in January 1912, the Anti-opium-smoking campaign had culminated across the country. Under the support of the government, the "National Anti-Opium Association of China" and "Association of Chinese People Rejecting Opium" were established which made an important contribution to China's anti-opium-smoking campaign.Yunnan, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other local governments also combined with local specific circumstances to make anti-opium-smaking policy for punishing severely the opium cultivation, trade and opium smoking, thus, the overrun of opium began to be brought under an overall control.

Lessons in ambivalence: The Shanghai Municipal Council's opium policies, 1906-1917.

BACKGROUND: Shanghai was considered to be a "capital of opium" in modern China, hence the history of opium in the city has received significant attention. In the Shanghai International Settlement, where Chinese and foreigners lived as neighbours, drugs were considered by the administration as both "trouble maker", and important financial resource. This paper explores how the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC), the most senior governing body in the settlement, used its position to maximize political and economic profit from the trade and consumption of opium. METHODS: The paper is based on documentary analysis of records of the SMC board meetings and other related material stored at Shanghai Municipal Archives. Interpretive approaches were used to analyze the shifting SMC strategies on opium consumption, the competing power relations and the way they were negotiated between actors with a stake in the region, including semi-colonialism and world systems analysis. RESULTS: With the dual purpose of preventing damage and enhancing municipal management, the SMC introduced a licensing system permitting the consumption and trade of drugs. However, the anti-opium policies of the late Qing government and the Anglo-Chinese 10 Year Agreement meant SMC had to shut down opium "houses" (opium dens) and "shops" (for the sale of opium to be consumed off the premises). CONCLUSIONS: Over almost a decade, the SMC shifted emphasis from political regulation of a social, recreational practice to maximizing financial benefit. In the process, SMC made full use of the opportunities it gained from a period of ambivalent Chinese and British power relations and local community rule.

Opium use in Turkmenistan: a historical perspective.

This paper presents a picture of how the patterns of opium use have changed in Turkmenistan over more than 100 years and the relationship between these transformations and formal and informal social controls of drug use. From the late 18th century, when opium use began to become a social problem, informal control weakened. Eventually, in the late 19th century, formal control was introduced, aimed at the prohibition of drug trade and use. From that time, the intended and unintended outcomes of implemented policies led to changes in the demographic patterns of users and the social-medical consequences of opiate use. The anti-drug policies, where criminal prohibition coexisted with strategies aimed at raising the population's general living standards and at providing free access to health care, were effective up to the early 1980s. New political and social-economic realities in the 1980-90s have radically changed the drug scene in the country, with heroin trade and use as the main concerns. The government's reaction, while following the old paths, has included new elements, based mainly on ideas of national consolidation.

The price elasticity of opium in Taiwan, 1914-1942.

Between 1895 and 1945, the Japanese colonial government virtually eliminated opium use in Taiwan by licensing and treating existing users, prohibiting sales to others, and raising the price. We evaluate these policies using a two-part model to describe the fraction of the population using opium and consumption among users, and the rational addiction model by Becker et al. (1991). We confirm that opium is addictive and find no evidence supporting the rational addiction hypothesis. Demand is price-elastic with estimated short- and long-run demand elasticities of -0.48 and -1.38. These results have implications for control of other addictive substances.