This series explores opium and its history. Opium is a commodity of notoriety and tremendous value. Wars have been fought over this lucrative commodity, the infamous Opium Wars in China. The fighting in Afghanistan is currently being waged in the province of Helmand, the world’s most productive region of opium. Apparently it’s still worth fighting over.

Seeds of Terror by Gretchen Peters, 2009, Excerpts

Opium makes up between 30 and 50 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP. It’s essential to recognize the economic miracle the drug traffickers have achieved. From one of the world’s most remote and backward regions, where the transport network and infrastructure is almost completely shattered, they have managed to integrate an agricultural product into the global economy. From importing precursor chemicals to giving loans to thousands of small farmers to providing security for shipments as they move across the border, this is an organizational feat of the highest order. And it’s all about making money. Although the Taliban commanders are deep in the opium trade, they are not the masterminds. This is being run by businessmen.

Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon by Barbara Hodgson, 1999, Excerpts

Opium: potent and evocative, it is a word with the power to intoxicate both speaker and listener, a word that implies languor, mystery and a sort of sinister beauty. Nothing seems to capture the sensuousness of this word better than the image of the dreamy smoker adrift in his illicit paradise. To consume opium regularly, in any form, is to risk forging an almost unbreakable and deadly bond. Opium is one of the most addictive and debilitating substances on earth, the opium addict has been called slave, fiend and ghost.

The Opium Plant

Medicinal Opium

Opium Early History

Opium Wars - China

The Army Disease – Civil War

French Monopolize Salt, Alcohol, and Opium in Vietnam

1960s Thailand Heroin Trade

1960s Burma Heroin Trade

1960s Acetic Anhydride: Opium to Heroin

Opium and Afghanistan

Opium and the Soviet-Afghan War: 1979-1989

Opium, Pakistan, and the Soviet-Afghan War: 1979-1989

Opium Lords Emerge during Soviet-Afghan War

Post Soviet-Afghan War: U.S. Aid Cut Off

Mujahideen Consolidate Power

Origins of the Taliban

Pakistan and the Taliban

Osama bin Laden and Opium

Opium Poppy Ban of 2000: Inside Trader Con

9/11 and Invasion of Afghanistan

U.S Installs Afghan Opium Government

Juma Khan’s Opium Network

Helmand Province: World’s Leading Opium Producer

Opium in Literature and Film