Table of Contents
Preface xv
Introduction xxiii
Part I Opium in Antiquity 1
Chapter 1 The Mysterious Origins of the Opium Poppy 3
Chapter 2 Papyruses and Poppies 11
Chapter 3 A Journey Around the Mediterranean 15
Part II Opium and the Birth of Modern Medicine 21
Chapter 4 Classic Cures, Ancient Addictions 23
Chapter 5 A Little Light on the "Dark Ages" 39
Chapter 6 Opium's Golden Age 42
Chapter 7 The Monarch of Medicine 50
Part III Opium Goes Global 57
Chapter 8 Marco Polo and the Rise of Global Commerce 59
Chapter 9 "The Spice Trade Was in Reality the Drug Trade" 66
Chapter 10 The Two Most Addictive Drugs on Earth 73
Chapter 11 The Spice Race 77
Chapter 12 The Queen and Her Company 82
Chapter 13 A 5,000-Year Tradition of Medicine and Moderation 87
Chapter 14 Opening the China Market 91
Chapter 15 Great Britain "Invades" China 97
Chapter 16 Trading Opium in Canton: "The Complicated Machinery of Evasion" 105
Part IV The Opium Wars 115
Chapter 17 Two Letters that Could Have Prevented a War 117
Chapter 18 Five Roads to War 122
Chapter 19 The First Drug War 126
Part V The Agony and the Ecstasy 139
Chapter 20 America Enters the Opium Business 141
Chapter 21 Generosity and Greed 146
Chapter 22 Americans Try Growing Their Own 158
Chapter 23 Good Intentions, Tragic Results 165
Chapter 24 The Agony and the Ecstasy 175
Part VI Lam and Disorder 189
Chapter 25 America's First Failed Drug Laws 191
Chapter 26 Drug Hysteria and Race-Based Enforcement: The Harry Anslinger Story 199
Chapter 27 The War Nobody's Ever Won 216
Chapter 28 The $1 Trillion Question: What Do We Do Now? 242
Afterword 271
Acknowledgments 273
Bibliography 277
Index 316