In 'Smoke and Ashes,' Amitav Ghosh draws comparisons between America's modern opioid crisis and the West's flooding of China with opium in the 18th century.

In 'Smoke and Ashes,' Amitav Ghosh draws comparisons between America's modern opioid crisis and the West's flooding of China with opium in the 18th century.

War on Drugs. Anti-Chinese Xenophobia Fueled America's First Drug War San Francisco's prohibitionists worried that opium dens were patronized by "young men and women of respectable parentage" as ...

China banned the importation of opium as early as 1729, for which reason the East India Company “could not formally or explicitly acknowledge that its opium was intended for the Chinese market.” ...

Smoke and Ashes explains how opium was primarily consumed in tonic form in India, but because it was smoked in China, it was much more addictive there. The Qing Dynasty banned opium as early as 1729 ...

It was in Javanese ports that Chinese sailors learned the habit of smoking tobacco dipped in Dutch-made liquid opium. They brought the practice back to Chinese port cities, where opium dens ...

HISTORY Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories Amitav Ghosh John Murray, $34.99. Amitav Ghosh (or perhaps his publishers) has given Smoke and Ashes two subtitles. In India, it came out in ...

Although China had partially enforced a ban on opium importation since 1729, heavily guarded ships took the product from the Ghazipur and Patna factories to Calcutta, where it was auctioned to ...

A sketch in an 1889 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune of opium smoking in China. Contributed / Newspapers.com. For two bits, or 25 cents, Poon used an ivory paddle to scoop thick, ...