Editing Opium (section)

==== Chinese diaspora in the West ====
The [[Chinese Diaspora]] in the West (1800s to 1949) first began to flourish during the 19th century due to famine and political upheaval, as well as rumors of wealth to be had outside of [[Southeast Asia]]. Chinese emigrants to cities such as [[San Francisco]], [[London]], and [[New York City]] brought with them the Chinese manner of opium smoking, and the social traditions of the [[opium den]].<ref name="sfmuseum.org">{{cite news |url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/cook.html|title=San Francisco's Old Chinatown|author=Commissioner Jesse B. Cook |author-link=Jesse B. Cook |date=June 1931|newspaper=San Francisco Police and Peace Officers' Journal|access-date=September 22, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://immigrants.harpweek.com/chineseamericans/Items/Item061L.htm|title=American Opium Smokers|author=H.H. Kane, M.D.|date=September 24, 1881|access-date=September 22, 2007}}</ref> The [[Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin|Indian Diaspora]] distributed opium-eaters in the same way, and both social groups survived as "[[lascar]]s" (seamen) and "[[coolie]]s" (manual laborers). French sailors provided another major group of opium smokers, having gotten the habit while in [[French Indochina]], where the drug was promoted and monopolized by the colonial government as a source of revenue.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1910/frenchnavyopium.htm|title=Opium degrading the French Navy|date=April 27, 1913|access-date=September 22, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/21.htm|title=The politics of heroin in Southeast Asia|author=Alfred W. McCoy|author-link=Alfred W. McCoy|year=1972|access-date=September 24, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007015442/http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/21.htm|archive-date=October 7, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Among white Europeans, opium was more frequently consumed as [[laudanum]] or in [[patent medicine]]s. Britain's All-India Opium Act of 1878 formalized ethnic restrictions on the use of opium, limiting recreational opium sales to registered Indian opium-eaters and Chinese opium-smokers only and prohibiting its sale to workers from Burma.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/opium_india.cfm|title=Opium and the British Indian Empire|author=John Richards|date=May 23, 2001|access-date=September 24, 2007}}</ref> Likewise, in San Francisco, Chinese immigrants were permitted to smoke opium, so long as they refrained from doing so in the presence of whites.<ref name="sfmuseum.org" />

Because of the low social status of immigrant workers, contemporary writers and media had little trouble portraying opium dens as seats of vice, [[sexual slavery#White slavery|white slavery]], gambling, knife- and revolver-fights, and a source for drugs causing deadly overdoses, with the potential to addict and corrupt the white population. By 1919, anti-Chinese riots attacked [[Limehouse]], the [[Chinatown, London|Chinatown of London]]. Chinese men were deported for playing [[keno]] and sentenced to hard labor for opium possession. Due to this, both the immigrant population and the social use of opium fell into decline.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/templates/news/detail.cfm?newsid=7262|publisher=Tower Hamlets Newsletter|title=When a woman ruled Chinatown|author=John Rennie|date=March 26, 2007|access-date=May 12, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210150255/http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/templates/news/detail.cfm?newsid=7262 <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=February 10, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lascars.co.uk/plafeb1931.html|title=Lascars in the port of London|author=J.P. Jones|date=February 1931|publisher=P.L.A. Monthly|access-date=May 12, 2007}}</ref> Yet despite lurid literary accounts to the contrary, 19th-century London was not a hotbed of opium smoking. The total lack of photographic evidence of opium smoking in Britain, as opposed to the relative abundance of historical photos depicting opium smoking in North America and France, indicates the infamous [[Limehouse]] opium-smoking scene was little more than fantasy on the part of British writers of the day, who were intent on scandalizing their readers while drumming up the threat of the "yellow peril".<ref name="opiummuseum">[http://www.opiummuseum.com/index.pl?pics&67 "Opium in the West"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007124448/http://www.opiummuseum.com/index.pl?pics&67 |date=October 7, 2017 }}. ''[http://www.opiummuseum.com/ Opium Museum].'' 2007. Retrieved on September 21, 2007.</ref><ref name="eastlondonhistory">[http://londonparticulars.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/brilliant-chang/ "Brilliant, Chang! « London Particulars"]. Retrieved on October 3, 2010.</ref>