Editing Opium (section)

==== Prohibitions in China ====
Opium prohibition in China began in 1729, yet was followed by nearly two centuries of increasing opium use.  [[Destruction of opium at Humen|A massive destruction of opium]] by an emissary of the Chinese [[Daoguang Emperor]] in an attempt to stop opium smuggling by the British led to the [[First Opium War]] (1839{{ndash}}1842), in which Britain defeated China. After 1860, opium use continued to increase with widespread domestic production in China. By 1905, an estimated 25 percent of the male population were regular consumers of the drug. Recreational use of opium elsewhere in the world remained rare into late in the 19th century, as indicated by ambivalent reports of opium usage.<ref name=Dikotter/> In 1906, 41,000 tons were produced, but because 39,000 tons of that year's opium were consumed in China, overall usage in the rest of the world was much lower.<ref name="McCoy opium" /> These figures from 1906 have been criticized as overestimates.<ref name="Rewriting history">[http://www.ungassondrugs.org/images/stories/brief26.pdf Rewriting history, A response to the 2008 World Drug Report], Transnational Institute, June 2008</ref>

[[File:Opium smokers China.gif|thumb|left|A Chinese opium house; photographed in 1902]]
Smoking of opium came on the heels of [[tobacco]] smoking and may have been encouraged by a brief [[smoking ban|ban on the smoking]] of tobacco by the Ming emperor. The prohibition ended in 1644 with the coming of the [[Qing dynasty]], which encouraged smokers to mix in increasing amounts of opium.<ref name="Schiff" /> In 1705, [[Wang Shizhen (poet)|Wang Shizhen]] wrote, "nowadays, from nobility and gentlemen down to slaves and women, all are addicted to tobacco." Tobacco in that time was frequently mixed with other herbs (this continues with [[clove cigarettes]] to the modern day), and opium was one component in the mixture. Tobacco mixed with opium was called ''[[madak]]'' (or ''madat'') and became popular throughout China and its seafaring trade partners (such as [[Taiwan]], [[Java]], and the [[Philippines]]) in the 17th century.<ref name="Zheng" /> In 1712, [[Engelbert Kaempfer]] described [[Substance use disorder|addiction]] to ''madak'': "No commodity throughout the [[East Indies|Indies]] is retailed with greater profit by the [[Jakarta|Batavians]] than opium, which [its] users cannot do without, nor can they come by it except it be brought by the ships of the Batavians from [[Bengal]] and [[Coromandel Coast|Coromandel]]."<ref name="Trocki" />

Fueled in part by the 1729 ban on ''madak'', which at first effectively exempted pure opium as a potentially medicinal product, the smoking of pure opium became more popular in the 18th century. In 1736, the smoking of pure opium was described by [[Huang Shujing]], involving a pipe made from bamboo rimmed with silver, stuffed with palm slices and hair, fed by a clay bowl in which a globule of molten opium was held over the flame of an oil lamp. This elaborate procedure, requiring the maintenance of pots of opium at just the right temperature for a globule to be scooped up with a needle-like skewer for smoking, formed the basis of a craft of "paste-scooping" by which servant girls could become prostitutes as the opportunity arose.<ref name="Zheng" />