Abstract: Summary Epidemiologic data collected by several investigators in numerous communities of Asia indicate that the role of a community vis-a-vis opium production and commerce strongly influences the prevalence of addiction. Poppy producing communities tend to have the highest crude prevalence rates (i.e., over 6 addicts per 100 people). Communities involved with opium transshipment generally have intermediate rates (i.e., 3 to 6per 100 people). End use or consuming locales have the lowest rates (i.e., under 3 per 100 people). These differences are attributed to varying drug availability in these three locations (i.e., inside most homes, passing through the community, or on demand only). Ethnicity, religion and national origin are not associated with addiction rate. It appears that community survey provides the most reliable data, while case registers may often underestimate the number of cases.

Abstract: Various case finding techniques have been employed in the study of narcotic addiction. Each method contains its own bias, though their nature and extent are often not clear. This study was undertaken to evaluate the bias of three case finding techniques: (1) a field survey of addicts (n = 28), (2) patients voluntarily seeking treatment for addiction at the medical facility (n = 81), and (3) patients voluntarily seeking help for addiction at a Buddhist monastery (n = 118). All subjects belonged to the Hmong ethnic group, a tribal people of southeast Asia who grow the opium poppy as a cash crop. Despite the variability in sampling methods, most factors did not show significant differences. These included sex ratio, marital status, occupation, duration of addiction, and number of opiate doses per day. Some differences were noted in current age, age at addiction, and mode of using opium. Possible causes for those observed differences are explored.

Abstract: Comparative studies involving colour tests, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) were made on raw, prepared and dross opium with a view to establishing means for their differentiation. Analysis of a large number of samples found in south-east Asia showed the typical patterns and results to be quite distinctive in the qualitative and quantitative aspects. The relative proportions of the major alkaloids in the two chromatographic systems were used to advantage in the comparison. Prepared opium was found to have a characteristic yellow fluorescent spot on the TLC plate when viewed under long-wavelength ultraviolet light. No positive marker was found for dross opium, its unusual features being the relatively high morphine and codeine content and the absence of narcotine, meconic acid and especially thebaine. Most of the prepared opium samples were found to have been made from a mixture of raw and dross opium. The modified hallucinogen reagent of Maunder was found to be a suitable alternative chromogenic spray in the TLC analysis.

Abstract: As opium was one of the original drugs to be brought under an international control regime, it is appropriate to deal with this drug separately, in order to determine the present state of the control programme designed for it. Opium in the Single Convention has been classified under two categories, viz., medicinal opium and opium. While the former means “opium which has undergone the processes necessary to adapt it for medicinal use,” the latter means “the coagulated juice of the opium poppy.”1 However, the Single Convention has brought all kinds of opium under the same regime by placing them in Schedule I.2 The term “medicinal opium” has found expression in the Single Convention only once, in Article 23, paragraph 2, sub-paragraph (e),3 wherein it has been provided that medicinal opium and opium preparations may be excluded from government monopoly.

Abstract: (1981). The Metapsychology of Opium. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 71-79.

Abstract: The purpose of this Agreement was indicated in its Preamble which expressed a determination “to bring about the gradual and effective suppression of the manufacture of, internal trade in and use of prepared opium, as provided for in chapter II of the International Opium Convention of 23 January, 1912, in their Far Eastern Possessions and Territories, including leased or protected territories,” in which the use of prepared opium was temporarily authorized. The Parties to this Agreement were also desirous “on the grounds of humanity and for the purpose of promoting the social and moral welfare of their peoples, of taking all possible steps for achieving the suppression of the use of opium for smoking with the least possible delay,” and therefore, they decided to conclude an agreement supplementary to the International Opium Convention of 1912.

Abstract: An impartial observer surveying our society's response to drug abuse might be amused or appalled, but not admiring. Some dangerous drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol, are dealt with in an ambivalent manner, despite widespread acknowledgment of their devastating effects. Other dangerous drugs, such as opiates and cocaine, are strictly and harshly controlled in a manner suggestive of moralistic zeal rather than public health concern. The rationale for these differing approaches is clearly not based solely on pharmacology and has its roots in societal and historical factors. The understanding of these roots by those concerned with drug abuse treatment and policy formulation might lead to a more informed approach to these areas. This book provides such an understanding for one drug, opium. Written mainly by a historian (Berridge) aided by a psychiatrist specializing in addiction (Edwards), this volume traces the evolution of opium use in Great Britain in the 19th century from its widespread sale on the open market in the first three quarters of the cen¬ tury, to the increasing restrictions placed on its sale and distribution by the last quarter of the century. The book focuses on explaining the reasons for this change, which were related not simply to concern over the pharmaco¬ logical dangers of overdose and addic¬ tion, although these concerns clearly played a part. A major factor that Ber¬ ridge emphasizes that led to control