Opium traces have been discovered in Israel in vessels used in burial rituals by the ancient Canaanites, providing one of the world's earliest evidences of use of the drug.

The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military's seizure of power as the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, according to a new United Nations report.

Despite the abundance of evidence for opium use in Crete, Cyprus, Spain, Egypt, and ancient Sumer, scholars have debated whether or not there was much opium trade in the Levant.

A riveting new history of opium, a lucrative and destructive flower. Amitav Ghosh’s sweeping, forcefully written ‘Smoke and Ashes’ covers centuries in the life of the plant.

AN old sea chest linked to Bendigo is full of "dragon's blood", opium and other medicines - and now historians have the evidence to prove it.

Opium was de facto legalized in China at the end of the 1850s, a catastrophic moment for the officials steering the late Qing state. The government had lost two wars to the British, producing a ...

The production of opium increased sharply in Myanmar, rising to a nine-year high, according to the UN. It touched nearly 795 metric tonnes in 2022, nearly double the production in 2021 - 423 ...

In this episode of “Stories from the Collection,” Emma from the DEA Museum highlights an opium pipe and explores the history of early opium use and legislation in the United States. The ...

The relatively unknown story of wartime Japan’s ties with the opium trade in China is now in the public domain, courtesy of a manga series that has already sold more than 1.8 million copies in ...

Working with museum collections, I am often reminded that the names we attach to objects can reflect powerful social and political forces. A case in point is the small instrument of ancient Asian ...

Myanmar has become the world’s biggest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan after the ruling Taliban imposed a ban on poppy cultivation, according to a new United Nations report.

That prompted opium farming in the country to plummet an estimated 95% in 2023, according to an annual survey by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Sign up here.