Journal on "Illicit Consumption"

Journal 9 pages (2838 words) Sources: 9

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Opium Consumption and Trade

The consumption of opium before the First World War was legal. It was legal to trade and consumer opium in public and there was no restriction whatsoever. This however got changed and soon after the WWI and during the war as well, the soldiers going on war were consuming the opium. There was also transformation in social class of opiates as time passed and with the gradual ban on opium smoking. As mentioned by Courtwright that "during the nineteenth century the dominant addict type was a middle-aged, middle-class or upper class female, the drugs most commonly used by addicts were morphine and opium. The majority of cases were medical in origin" (Courtwright, 110).

Although consumed legally, opium was restricted as a legal drug and this caused change in the consumption and trade patterns of opium. In 1909, the London County Council tried to curb the consumption and sales of opium (Lai, Bob and Pippa, 21). Spillane also mentioned that restricting the sale of cocaine was on drug retail stores caused significant development of shadow market of drugs. All these writers have mentioned that trying to eradicate the use of drugs and imposing restrictions on supply of opium drug has only resulted in making this more pervasively used drug in countries like the U.S. And elsewhere. Courtwright mentioned that during the nineteenth century, opium and morphine were most consumed drugs and that too for medical reasons. This was largely the practice of middle and upper class people, mostly females (110). This however changed during the 1940s when majority of the drug users were young people from middle to lower-middle class. There was also a change in type of drug used; now it was heroin and morphine. The people who became addicts from a medical perspective began to decrease and there was an increased illicit consumption of drugs otherwise meant for medical purposes only. Courtwright (112) with the help of graphical representations mentioned that from 1895 to 1935, there was a gradual increase in non-medical opiates and decrease in medical opiates. The author also argued that banning certain drugs or making them unavailable through crackdown on supply-chain of illicit drugs only made the matter worse. There were new female addicts that only became heroin and opium addicts after Harrison Act was passed.

Gradually the restrictions on opium and cocaine drugs got stiff and this caused not only fascination in young people but also for the poor classes. The consumption by socially lower classes caused these drugs to be in more demand while disregarding the health issues. The law of demand and supply was disturbed and thus the shadow markets, as termed by Spillane got established. Spillane (141) also mentioned that cracking down the retail drug sellers only aggravated the issue of illegal sales of drugs. The example is given that illicit drugs were sold by drugstores such as Charles Sonnenberg and Adam Huthwelker (Spillane, 141). Cocaine was sold be these drugstores illegally to consumers through secretive selling techniques. These drugstores are even mentioned as uneducated drug peddlers that took use of restriction by earning hefty profits for selling illicit drugs.

Use as stimulants

The readings clearly indicate towards the trend that opium as well as cocaine was now beginning to be used as 'stimulants' and pleasure seeking drugs rather than for their medical use. The medical addicts were not seen as much as those that sought this drug for non-medical purposes. The story of Annie from Chinatown, London also describes how gradually the trade and consumption of opium transformed and each time that someone consumed too much of opium and died, there was an outcry that resulted in more restriction over opium consumption. The media highlight also caused the restriction on trade and consumption of opium enforced.

There was also a change in perception regarding the people who got addicted. Some researchers termed addiction of drugs as 'psychological disorders' whereas other mentioned these as mental and hereditary disorders. These definitions also altered the behavior of society towards the addicts of opium and there was a resulting surge in geographic area where opium was consumed along with demographic segments that now were called opium addicts.

It is generally experienced that when something is banned and classed as unlawful, the temptation of using the drug increases in the younger people. After the opium trade was held illegal in London, the profits from opium trade skyrocketed and the profits that used to be 300 to 500% further increased. This increased the motivation of drug dealers to find ways to circumvent the law and supply drugs. The general consumption patterns also represent that the decreasing the supply of drugs is counterproductive and this only results in increased profits for dealers of drugs and an infiltration of drugs into non-specified areas that previously did not experience drug usage.

When cocaine sales were restricted at the drugstores and non-medical users of drugs were totally restricted from being able to purchase the drugs, the result was the development of shadow market of drugs and same drugstores now used to sell the illegal drugs undercover. The nexus of shadow markets strengthens after the restrictions whereas usage of drugs by non-medical users could also be hardly contained. The net result is further surge in demand as well as supply of opium in areas where restrictions have increased.

Works Cited

Courtwright, David T., and David T. Courtwright. Dark paradise: A history of opiate addiction in America. Harvard University Press, 2009.

Lai, Annie, Bob Little, and Pippa Little. "Chinatown Annie: The East End Opium Trade 1920-35: The Story of a Woman Opium Dealer." Oral History 14.1 (1986): 18-30.

Spillane, Joseph F. Cocaine: From medical marvel to modern menace in the United States, 1884-1920. Vol. 18. JHU Press, 2000.

Journal 2: War on drugs

Drugs have been slowly infiltrating to more geographical area and that has resulted in increased amount of government expenditures on fighting the menace. The example of U.S. is perfect in the sense that the more U.S. presidents have come hard on drugs; their supply and demand has increased in the U.S. This is creating an effect opposite to what the drug wars of the U.S. are intended to achieve. There are more number of contact points from where drugs can be bought and there are increasingly more number of sections of society that are engaged in taking drugs as before.

The opposite effects that we talk about are evident from the statistics that were put together by McCoy. McCoy (387) noted that President Nixon, after the unsuccessful Vietnam War, also launched the drug war in Europe and same was the result as in case of Vietnam. The drug trade became lucrative business and supply was restricted but demand was as pervasive as before the crackdown. This gave rise to new markets in the European countries. By late 1970s, Marseille-New York drug trade channel got activated and there were new production fields in Europe as well as Asia catering to the demand of heroin and other illicit drugs from the U.S.

The narcotics traffic not only got strengthened but also became much powerful as before. There was another facet to this development as well. Although statistics showed that South East Asia was producing 70% of the opium, the U.S. efforts and anti-drug wars were concentrated elsewhere. It heavily invested in eliminating cocaine whereas heroin was taking over as the world's number one drug being consumed illicitly. McCoy (388) mentioned that in 1991, the then U.S. president George H.W. Bush allocated only 5% of the total foreign suppression budget on South East Asian drug elimination.

Cocaine war: Crackdown on Asian supply chain

The result of any drug war that America announced, since the time of President Nixon, did not eradicate the source of drugs or the supply of drugs to the U.S. territory. It only changed the source of supply and actors of supply chain. This is evident when the U.S. declared war on cocaine having being supplied by the Asian dealers from 'Golden Triangle'. McCoy has termed the drug wars of the U.S. As being 'self-defeating' and cites the example that when supply from Asian channels was dried up as a result of U.S. war on drugs. The supply of coca from Latin America surged and Peru's Coca harvest increased from 15000 tons in 1970 to 191, 000 tons in 1987. There were new supply channels established by the dealers and more number of people now joined the trade as the process went up due to restricted supply. The demand remained the same. The Coca from Peru was flown to Colombia and then grained into fine powered form. Thus, by late 1980s, Cocaine was an integrated as legitimate inter-American economic relations (McCoy, 443).

It was also referred by the author that efforts of the U.S. government were directed towards a wrong channel and not towards from where biggest threat came. There were other aspects of historical consumption of drugs, both licit and illicit. McCoy specifically addressed the… READ MORE

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