DATA SOURCES: NAIDU RATNALA THULAJA,NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD, JONATHAN SAHA,
ASHLEY WRIGHT, PURDUE, ROUGH GUIDES, ROOTS, JEFFREY HAYS/FACTS AND DETAILS
PHOTO © SHUTTERSTOCKbrought [opium] as a present to native rulers,”
Derks writes, in his tracing of how the poppy
flower found its way into Southeast Asia. It has
also been posited that the hill tribes migrated
into the Golden Triangle already armed with
poppy seeds and knowledge of its cultivation
techniques thanks to Chinese influence.
Despite the availability of poppies in the
Golden Triangle before imperialisation,
“nowhere in those [intervening] years did any
form of large scale opium business in Asia exist,
and there was no opium problem whatsoever,”
Derks writes. Rather, the Hmong and Mien
hill tribes in the area used the plant in rituals
and folk remedies to treat simple maladies
like stress, coughs, and toothaches. Whenever
opium was smoked – for it was – among the
Hmong community, it never reached a state
of hopeless intoxication as was infamously
the case in China. Instead, it was only socially
acceptable for elders to pass the remainder of
their lives in the peaceful, euphoric embrace
of the drug’s effects. Young people in the
community who got addicted faced disgrace
and social exclusion.
It was only after the widespread narcotic
use of the drug did the evils of opium begin
to reveal themselves across the region.
Influenced by Chinese immigrants, opium
farms and dens quickly began sprouting
in countries like Singapore, Vietnam and
Malaysia. Brothels began offering the drug,
earning the pastime its permanent association
with vice. In the meantime, British and
French-led campaigns to encourage farmers
in the Golden Triangle to grow ever more of
the low-maintenance yet lucrative cash crop
led to the beginning of their peoples’ addiction.
Today, eradication programmes have vastly
reduced the growing and use of opium – and
its derivative, heroin – though it still remains
a major problem in some areas. Addicts would
do well to take a leaf out of the Hmongs’ book,
and know their own limits... ag3400 bCe
The poppy plant
is cultivated in
Mesopotamia330 bCe
Alexander the Great
brings opium to
Persia and India1839
The First Opium War
takes place between
China and Britain1940s
French colonists
encourage farmers in
Laos to cultivate opium1970s
Opium from the Golden
Triangle fuels the global
heroin tradepoppy power
the opium proCess
The poppy flower buds
from a bulbous seed podUnripe seed pods are
harvested by farmersThe pod is scratched to
release a milky resinThe opium is gathered
and shaped into blocks
for easy transport
and tradeThe opium is shaped
into blocks for easy
transport and trade