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116-625: It is one of the top opium -producing districts in Afghanistan with 6% of Afghanistan's total crop being grown there. This has made the Nawa-i-Barakzayi district a central hub in the opium and heroin trade. The district has also been the scene of heavy fighting during the Helmand province campaign . It was a Taliban stronghold until the summer of 2009, when United States Marines were deployed there as part of Operation Strike of

232-612: A branch of the Government of China's exchequer, to arrange for silver currency to be transported to Baotou to use it to sponsor the trade. The opium trade under the Chinese Communist Party was important to its finances in the 1940s. Peter Vladimirov 's diary provided a first hand account. Chen Yung-fa provided a detailed historical account of how the opium trade was essential to the economy of Yan'an during this period. Mitsubishi and Mitsui were involved in

348-676: A crime to sell opiates without a prescription, and bans on possession of opium or opium pipes in 1909 were enacted. Garmsir Garmsir ( Pashto : ګرمسير ; from Persian گرمسیر , meaning "hot place" ) is the center of Garmsir District in Helmand Province , Afghanistan . It is situated on the eastern bank of the Helmand River on 31°07′00″N 64°12′00″E  /  31.1167°N 64.2000°E  / 31.1167; 64.2000 at 714 m altitude and 63 km southwest of Lashkargah . The major road at Garmsir

464-419: A famous sword, within the pommel of which he kept "Stones of Immortality" compounded from opium thebaicum, citrus juice, and "quintessence of gold". The name "Paracelsus" was a pseudonym signifying him the equal or better of Aulus Cornelius Celsus , whose text, which described the use of opium or a similar preparation, had recently been translated and reintroduced to medieval Europe. The Canon of Medicine ,

580-419: A greenhouse and 4,000 farmers had signed up to receive the tunnels along with seed to plant alternative crops. The main problems were still a lack of Afghan security forces , teachers , agricultural advisers and doctors . The main road through the district is Route 605 . There are currently plans to build a road linking Nawa and nearby Garmsir District with the provincial capital Lashkar Gah . Nawa and

696-602: A major government stronghold. During the Soviet occupation, the Afghan Communists recruited many of their Khalq militia from Nawa-i-Barakzayi. The Russians also had a major operations base near Lashkar Gah with at least 2500 soldiers, including the 22nd Spetznaz Brigade. The main Russian strategy in central Helmand was to cut a deal with the main mujahideen commander, Mullah Mohammad Nasim Akhundzada which divided

812-477: A person's home servings of opium were offered as a form of greeting and politeness. Often served with tea (in China) and with specific and fine utensils and beautifully carved wooden pipes. The wealthier the smoker, the finer and more expensive material used in ceremony. The image of seedy underground, destitute smokers were often generated by anti-opium narratives and became a more accurate image of opium use following

928-496: A poison. Avicenna describes several methods of delivery and recommendations for doses of the drug. This classic text was translated into Latin in 1175 and later into many other languages and remained authoritative until the 19th century. Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu used opium in the 14th-century Ottoman Empire to treat migraine headaches, sciatica , and other painful ailments. Manuscripts of Pseudo-Apuleius 's 5th-century work from

1044-472: A solution of opium in ethanol , which Paracelsus has been credited with developing. During his lifetime, Paracelsus was viewed as an adventurer who challenged the theories and mercenary motives of contemporary medicine with dangerous chemical therapies, but his therapies marked a turning point in Western medicine. In the 1660s, laudanum was recommended for pain, sleeplessness, and diarrhea by Thomas Sydenham ,

1160-464: A substantial success, with a cessation of direct British opium exports to China (but not Hong Kong) and most provinces declared free of opium production. Nonetheless, the success of the program was only temporary, with opium use rapidly increasing during the disorder following the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916. Opium farming also increased, peaking in 1930 when the League of Nations singled China out as

1276-611: A treatise, al-Tasrif , that influenced medical thought well into the 16th century. The Persian physician Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn ibn Sina ("Avicenna") described opium as the most powerful of the stupefacients, in comparison to mandrake and other highly effective herbs, in The Canon of Medicine . The text lists medicinal effects of opium, such as analgesia, hypnosis, antitussive effects, gastrointestinal effects, cognitive effects, respiratory depression, neuromuscular disturbances, and sexual dysfunction. It also refers to opium's potential as

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1392-478: Is Route 605 . The hospital is called Hazar Juft Comprehensive Health Clinic. Prince Harry spent time in the village during his 2008 period in the country. Garmsir has a hot desert climate ( Köppen BWh ), characterised by little precipitation and high variation between summer and winter temperatures. The average temperature in Garmsir is 21.3 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 83 mm. July

1508-654: Is a British stabilization advisor from the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team . Scott Dempsey is the representative from USAID . Abdul Manaf was appointed District Governor in the summer of 2009. A 2008 survey by the Afghan government recorded 49 villages, 18 Community Development Councils, 12 Primary Schools, 7 Secondary Schools, and 4 Health Centers, with 10 km of asphalted roads. As of February 2010 its bazaar had more than 100 shops, as opposed to 6 before Operation Strike of

1624-462: Is close to the western lands of Xiyu . A century later, Li Shizhen listed standard medical uses of opium in his renowned Compendium of Materia Medica (1578), but also wrote that "lay people use it for the art of sex," in particular the ability to "arrest seminal emission". This association of opium with sex continued in China until the end of the 19th century. Opium smoking began as a privilege of

1740-514: Is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum . Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine , which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade . The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine , and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine . The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaining

1856-456: Is governed by Abdul Manaf. He lives in a compound next to a Marine base. The District Administrator is Haji Mohammed Khan. The District Chief of Police is Haji Muhammed Nafex Kahn. The Afghan National Army in the area is led by Captain Saki Dad. The International Security Assistance Force main representative is Lieutenant Colonel Matt Baker of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines . Ian Purves

1972-860: Is located in the southwestern part of Afghanistan, which consists mainly of desert or semidesert land. The region is crossed by the Helmand River , which flows from the Hindu Kush to the Sistan Basin in Iran. The basin has several slightly salty lakes and marshes. Barley, corn, fruits, wheat, and poppy are grown in the Helmand Valley. Temperatures in Nawa-i-Barakzayi average about 46F in January and about 92F in July. The average annual precipitation ranges from 0 to 0.8 inches. Very little snow falls in

2088-492: Is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 33.8 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 8.6 °C. Garmsir was the scene of heavy fighting during April–September 2008 when U.S. Marines from the 24th MEU arrived to reinforce British and Afghan forces. In July 2009, Marines taking part in Operation Khanjar met little or no resistance initially. By July 5, elements of

2204-700: The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines were featured in the independent documentary film Patrol Base Jaker (2011). The film features Abdul Manaf in his role as the Nawa District Governor and Haji Mohammed Khan as the Nawa District Administrator. Filmmaker David Scantling joined the Marines during their 2009 deployment in the Nawa District. Opium Opium (or poppy tears , scientific name: Lachryma papaveris )

2320-428: The 20mm guns from their AH-1W SuperCobra helicopter gunships to avoid the risk of civilian casualties. The militants managed to escape. Taliban forces withdrew to Marjah while observing the Marines. In mid-May 2010 1st Battalion 3rd Battalion was substituted by 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines . Partnering with Afghan National Army soldiers from the 215th Corps , the battalion found itself in an area awash with money as

2436-418: The 6th century BC . From the earliest finds, opium has appeared to have ritual significance, and anthropologists have speculated ancient priests may have used the drug as a proof of healing power. In Egypt, the use of opium was generally restricted to priests, magicians, and warriors, its invention is credited to Thoth, and it was said to have been given by Isis to Ra as treatment for a headache. A figure of

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2552-529: The Afghan parliamentary elections the battalion suffered another loss when 1st Lieutenant Scott Fleming was shot and killed. Nevertheless, on election day Nawa District was the one location in Helmand Province with no reported Taliban attacks. Residents claimed that the Marines from 3rd Battalion had implemented good security measures and encouraged the people to cooperate with the government, preventing

2668-679: The British Parliament to stop the opium trade. He and James Laidlaw Maxwell appealed to the London Missionary Conference of 1888 and the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 to condemn the continuation of the trade. When Broomhall was dying, his son Marshall read to him from The Times the welcome news that an agreement had been signed ensuring the end of the opium trade within two years. Official Chinese resistance to opium

2784-619: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , visited Patrol Base Jaker and touted the security gains by touring the Nawa district center without wearing body armor . Several weeks later Afghan President Hamid Karzai and ISAF commander General Stanley McChrystal also visited Nawa on January 2, 2010. On January 9, 2010, British journalist Rupert Hamer and Lance Corporal Mark D Juarez of 1st Battalion 3rd Marines were killed by an IED in

2900-513: The Guominjun reversed his policy; by 1933, people from every level of society were abusing the drug, and Ningxia was left in destitution. In 1923, an officer of the Bank of China from Baotou found out that Ma Fuxiang was assisting the drug trade in opium which helped finance his military expenses. He earned US$ 2   million from taxing those sales in 1923. General Ma had been using the bank,

3016-590: The Indies is retailed with greater profit by the 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 ." 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,

3132-524: The Neolithic age with purposes such as food, anaesthetics , and ritual . Evidence from ancient Greece indicates that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation of vapors, suppositories , medical poultices , and as a combination with hemlock for suicide. Opium is mentioned in the most important medical texts of the ancient and medieval world, including the Ebers Papyrus and

3248-476: The Second Opium War in 1858, China was forced to legalize opium and began massive domestic production. Importation of opium peaked in 1879 at 6,700 tons, and by 1906, China was producing 85 percent of the world's opium, some 35,000 tons, and 27 percent of its adult male population regularly used opium‍—‌13.5   million people consuming 39,000 tons of opium yearly. From 1880 to the beginning of

3364-684: The Shamalan canal , a branch of the Boghra canal , was built by the Helmand Valley Authority . It replaced the old system, increased the water supply, improved water distribution and brought new lands under irrigation. Additional irrigation in the 1970s brought more water into the southern reaches of Nawa, more land under cultivation, and allowed new land settlement. In 1978 the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan seized control of

3480-539: The U.S. Agency for International Development was in the process of spending $ 30 million in an attempt to increase agricultural production (and create jobs for thousands of otherwise-potential Taliban recruits), but was also resulting in tensions between the local community council and tribal elders. In-mid June, Lima Company took part in Operation New Dawn, establishing observation posts in southern Shorshork, an area in between Nawa and Marjeh . In late July,

3596-688: The Yongzheng Emperor to 1,000 under the Qianlong Emperor , 4,000 under the Jiaqing Emperor , and 30,000 under the Daoguang Emperor . This illegal sale of opium, which has been called "the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times", became one of the world's most valuable single commodity trades, and between 1814 and 1850, sucked out 11 percent of China's money supply. In response to

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3712-537: The "nervous exhaustion" suffered by many a white-collar worker in the increasingly hectic and industrialized U.S. life—the most likely potential clients of physicians. Soldiers returning home from the Crusades in the 11th to 13th century brought opium with them. Opium is said to have been used for recreational purposes from the 14th century onwards in Muslim societies. Ottoman and European testimonies confirm that from

3828-501: The 10th and 11th centuries refer to the use of wild poppy Papaver agreste or Papaver rhoeas (identified as P. silvaticum ) instead of P. somniferum for inducing sleep and relieving pain. The use of Paracelsus ' laudanum was introduced to Western medicine in 1527, when Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known by the name Paracelsus, claimed (dubiously) to have returned from wanderings in Arabia with

3944-625: The 16th to the 19th centuries Anatolian opium was eaten in Constantinople as much as it was exported to Europe. In 1573, for instance, a Venetian visitor to the Ottoman Empire observed many of the Turkish natives of Constantinople regularly drank a "certain black water made with opium" that makes them feel good, but to which they become so addicted, if they try to go without, they will "quickly die". From drinking it, dervishes claimed

4060-458: The 1820s. Portuguese traders also brought opium from the independent Malwa states of western India, although by 1820, the British were able to restrict this trade by charging "pass duty" on the opium when it was forced to pass through Bombay to reach an entrepot . Despite drastic penalties and continued prohibition of opium until 1860, opium smuggling rose steadily from 200 chests per year under

4176-532: The 19th century, "any respectable person" could purchase a range of hashish pastes and (later) morphine with complementary injection kit. Thomas De Quincey 's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822), one of the first and most famous literary accounts of opium addiction written from the point of view of an addict, details the pleasures and dangers of the drug. In the book, it is not Ottoman, nor Chinese, addicts about whom he writes, but English opium users: "I question whether any Turk, of all that ever entered

4292-421: The 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; died while supporting combat operations in Nawa, Afghanistan. [3] On April 2, 2010, Lance Cpl. Curtis M. Swenson with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines, was killed after a Humvee in which Swenson was riding hit a roadside bomb that flipped the vehicle in Nawa, Afghanistan. [4] By the spring of 2009 Helmand

4408-599: The Ahmadshah Salem, the district's chief of police. Nawa-I-Barakzayi is located on a flood plain that had been farmed for centuries, with farmers taking water from the river via locally built canals. In the 1950s and 1960s the United States sponsored the Helmand Valley Authority , a desert reclamation project to help turn parts of the Helmand River Valley into fertile farmland. In Nawa,

4524-486: The British, which led to a decrease of the British silver stocks. Therefore, the British tried to encourage Chinese opium use to enhance their balance, and they delivered it from Indian provinces under British control. In India, its cultivation, as well as the manufacture and traffic to China, were subject to the British East India Company (BEIC), as a strict monopoly of the British government. There

4640-588: The Chinese border into the Golden Triangle region. The remnant opium trade primarily served Southeast Asia, but spread to American soldiers during the Vietnam War ; based on a study of opiate use in soldiers returning to the United States in 1971, 20 percent of participants were dependent enough to experience withdrawal symptoms. There were no legal restrictions on the importation or use of opium in

4756-467: The Chinese manner of opium smoking, and the social traditions of the opium den . The Indian Diaspora distributed opium-eaters in the same way, and both social groups survived as " lascars " (seamen) and " coolies " (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

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4872-491: The Communist era, the British attempted to discourage the use of opium in China, but this effectively promoted the use of morphine, heroin, and cocaine, further exacerbating the problem of addiction. Scientific evidence of the pernicious nature of opium use was largely undocumented in the 1890s, when Protestant missionaries in China decided to strengthen their opposition to the trade by compiling data which would demonstrate

4988-748: The Greek Opium has been actively collected since approximately 3400   BCE. At least 17 finds of Papaver somniferum from Neolithic settlements have been reported throughout Switzerland , Germany , and Spain , including the placement of large numbers of poppy seed capsules at a burial site (the Cueva de los Murciélagos , or "Bat Cave", in Spain), which has been carbon-14 dated to 4200   BCE. Numerous finds of P. somniferum or P. setigerum from Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have also been reported. The first known cultivation of opium poppies

5104-633: The Helmand River with some 700 men and vehicles at work. In 2009 the Taliban began moving even more men into Nawa, possibly for additional attacks against Lashkar Gah. On May 13, they launched an attack against the Afghan National Police in the district, that overwhelmed several posts. By late spring they had established a solid foothold in the district. On July 2, 2009, Marines from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines (1/5) occupied

5220-595: The Minoan "goddess of the narcotics", wearing a crown of three opium poppies, c.  1300   BCE, was recovered from the Sanctuary of Gazi, Crete, together with a simple smoking apparatus. The Greek gods Hypnos (Sleep), Nyx (Night), and Thanatos (Death) were depicted wreathed in poppies or holding them. Poppies also frequently adorned statues of Apollo , Asclepius , Pluto , Demeter , Aphrodite , Kybele and Isis , symbolizing nocturnal oblivion. As

5336-658: The Rev. Griffith John , London Mission Society in Hankou . These missionaries were generally outraged over the British government's Royal Commission on Opium visiting India but not China. Accordingly, the missionaries first organized the Anti-Opium League in China among their colleagues in every mission station in China. American missionary Hampden Coit DuBose acted as first president. This organization, which had elected national officers and held an annual national meeting,

5452-476: The Sword , which would target Taliban positions in Nawa-i-Barakzayi and Garmsir. According to Marine Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, the operation was aimed to improve security ahead of presidential elections, allowing voter registration where before there was none. The BBC said that while that was the official goal of the operation, the real goal was the change the momentum of the war, which had previously favored

5568-534: The Sword . After the Taliban fled in 2009 the district marketplace reopened, irrigation canal clearing projects started, and a local community council was established. By 2010 millions of dollars were being pumped into public works projects, including a town hall and police station. There were also numerous agricultural projects spearheaded by various NGOs, including USAID. In 2009 they delivered wheat grain seeds to 6,000 farmers. As of 2010 250 workers had been hired to construct plastic crop tunnels that function like

5684-459: The Sword . In January 2010 ISAF chief Stanley McChrystal and the country's prime minister Hamid Karzai visited the district to assess the ISAF's work in combating the insurgents. Nawa previously fell to the Taliban in early August 2016, but Afghan forces reentered the district center in mid-August, making the district contested. In October 2016, Taliban has seized control of the district and killed

5800-498: The Taliban from firing a single shot. By the end of 3rd Battalion's deployment in the fall of 2010, Nawa was regarded by many as "a model of counterinsurgency operations and the most stable district" in southern Afghanistan. The success of 3rd Batallion, 3rd Marines redirected OEF's focus to the hostile Nawa-I-Barakzayi District and the city of Marjah . Mujahideen commander Mullah Mohammad Nasim Akhundzada, based in Musa Qala in

5916-451: The Taliban, and create the perception that security in Afghanistan was improving. On July 2, hundreds of Marines from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines were lifted by helicopter into the district, encountering sporadic resistance. The conflict began around 1:00 am local time when Marines were dropped by CH-47s and UH-60s helicopters of the 82nd Airborne Division , into dirt fields around the district capital of Nawa-I-Barakzayi. The first shots of

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6032-403: The United States in the late 19th century and between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women. Opium addiction in the later 19th century received a hereditary definition. Dr. George Beard in 1869 proposed his theory of neurasthenia , a hereditary nervous system deficiency that could predispose an individual to addiction. Neurasthenia was increasingly tied in medical rhetoric to

6148-596: The United States until the San Francisco Opium Den Ordinance, which banned dens for public smoking of opium in 1875, a measure fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment and the perception that whites were starting to frequent the dens. This was followed by an 1891 California law requiring that narcotics carry warning labels and that their sales be recorded in a registry; amendments to the California Pharmacy and Poison Act in 1907 made it

6264-473: The basis of a craft of "paste-scooping" by which servant girls could become prostitutes as the opportunity arose. 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

6380-568: The battalion suffered the loss of Corporal Joe Wrighstman, who drowned in the Helmand River while attempting to save the life of an Afghan National policeman . Just days later they had to secure the crash site of Dealer 54, an HMLA-369 helicopter which had crashed near Lashkar Gah , killing the two pilots. Around this time, India Company conducted Operation Thresher and later Operation Mako in areas of Nawa District under heavy Taliban influence, finding several cache sites and taking some detainees. In September, while providing pre-election security for

6496-509: The cheap opium with costly silver, began the First Opium War in 1840, the British winning Hong Kong and trade concessions in the first of a series of Unequal Treaties . The opium trade incurred intense enmity from the later British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone . As a member of Parliament, Gladstone called it "most infamous and atrocious" referring to the opium trade between China and British India in particular. Gladstone

6612-569: The colonial government as a source of revenue. Among white Europeans, opium was more frequently consumed as laudanum or in patent medicines . 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. Likewise, in San Francisco, Chinese immigrants were permitted to smoke opium, so long as they refrained from doing so in

6728-791: The committee were John Glasgow Kerr , MD, American Presbyterian Mission in Guangzhou (Canton); B.C. Atterbury, MD , American Presbyterian Mission in Beijing (Peking); Archdeacon Arthur E. Moule , Church Missionary Society in Shanghai ; Henry Whitney, MD, American Board of Commissioners for foreign Missions in Fuzhou ; the Rev. Samuel Clarke, China Inland Mission in Guiyang ; the Rev. Arthur Gostick Shorrock , English Baptist Mission in Taiyuan ; and

6844-594: The district as part of Operation Strike of the Sword . They set up their headquarters in Forward Operating Base Geronimo . On August 26, Lance Corporal Donald Hogan, a Marine with 1/5, threw himself in front of an improvised explosive device (IED), saving the Marines in his squad. He was later posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions. On October 20, 2009, Lance Corporal David R. Baker with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

6960-410: The district. On January 10, 2010, Lance Corporal Jacob A. Meinert with 1st Battalion 3rd Marine Regiment, Bravo Company was killed in action in Nawa, Afghanistan. [1] On January 24, 2010, Lance Corporal Timothy J. Poole Jr. with 1st Battalion 3rd Marine Regiment, Bravo Company was killed in action during a patrol in Nawa, Afghanistan. [2] On February 16, 2010, Lance Cpl. Noah M. Pier, assigned to

7076-404: The drug. Action against opium farmers centered upon a highly repressive incarnation of law enforcement in which rural populations had their property destroyed, their land confiscated and/or were publicly tortured, humiliated and executed. Addicts sometimes turned to missionaries for treatment for their addiction, though many associated these foreigners with the drug trade. The program was counted as

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7192-571: The drugs bestowed them with visionary glimpses of future happiness. Indeed, the Ottoman Empire supplied the West with opium long before China and India. Extensive textual and pictorial sources also show that poppy cultivation and opium consumption were widespread in Safavid Iran and Mughal India. In England, opium fulfilled a "critical" role, as it did other societies, in addressing multifactorial pain , cough , dysentery , diarrhea , as argued by Virginia Berridge . A medical panacea of

7308-506: The effects of large scale opium prohibition in the 1880s. Opium prohibition in China began in 1729, yet was followed by nearly two centuries of increasing opium use. 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 (1839–1842), 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

7424-446: The effects wore off because they would get used to being high. The standard medical use of opium persisted well into the 19th century. US president William Henry Harrison was treated with opium in 1841, and in the American Civil War , the Union Army used 175,000 lb (80,000 kg) of opium tincture and powder and about 500,000 opium pills. During this time of popularity, users called opium "God's Own Medicine". One reason for

7540-440: The elite and remained a great luxury into the early 19th century. However, by 1861, Wang Tao wrote that opium was used even by rich peasants, and even a small village without a rice store would have a shop where opium was sold. Recreational use of opium was part of a civilized and mannered ritual, akin to an East Asian tea ceremony , prior to the extensive prohibitions that came later. In places of gathering, often tea shops, or

7656-477: The ever-growing number of Chinese people becoming addicted to opium, the Qing Daoguang Emperor took strong action to halt the smuggling of opium, including the seizure of cargo. In 1838, the Chinese Commissioner Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 chests of opium (approximately 2,660,000 pounds) in Guangzhou in a river. Given that a chest of opium was worth nearly US$ 1,000 in 1800, this was a substantial economic loss. The British queen Victoria , not willing to replace

7772-437: The government and began a program of rapid modernization. Among the many institutions they targeted were the local landlords, known as the khans . In Helmand Province groups of local warlords and armed resistance fighters quickly rose in opposition to the government and filled the power vacuum left by the khans. Most resistance in Helmand was carried out on tribal lines; without a significant tribal base, Nawa-i-Barakzayi became

7888-420: The harm the drug did. Faced with the problem that many Chinese associated Christianity with opium, partly due to the arrival of early Protestant missionaries on opium clippers, at the 1890 Shanghai Missionary Conference, they agreed to establish the Permanent Committee for the Promotion of Anti-Opium Societies in an attempt to overcome this problem and to arouse public opinion against the opium trade. The members of

8004-404: The heels of tobacco smoking and may have been encouraged by a brief 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. In 1705, Wang Shizhen wrote, "nowadays, from nobility and gentlemen down to slaves and women, all are addicted to tobacco." Tobacco in that time

8120-436: The home director of the China Inland Mission , Benjamin Broomhall , was an active opponent of the opium trade, writing two books to promote the banning of opium smoking: The Truth about Opium Smoking and The Chinese Opium Smoker . In 1888, Broomhall formed and became secretary of the Christian Union for the Severance of the British Empire with the Opium Traffic and editor of its periodical, National Righteousness . He lobbied

8236-426: The illegal drug trade, the morphine is extracted from the opium latex, reducing the bulk weight by 88%. It is then converted to heroin which is almost twice as potent, and increases the value by a similar factor. The reduced weight and bulk make it easier to smuggle. The Mediterranean region contains the earliest archeological evidence of human use; the oldest known seeds date back to more than 5000   BCE in

8352-534: The immigrant population and the social use of opium fell into decline. 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

8468-420: The increase in opiate consumption in the United States during the 19th century was the prescribing and dispensing of legal opiates by physicians and pharmacists to women with "female complaints" (mostly to relieve menstrual pain and hysteria ). Because opiates were viewed as more humane than punishment or restraint, they were often used to treat the mentally ill. Between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived in

8584-474: The late Nineties. With the resurgence of the Taliban in 2005/2006, opium cultivation would explode in the district, hitting 10,168 hectares of poppy (or 6% of Afghanistan's total). Only Nad-i-Ali and Nahri Sarraj districts had higher levels. This has made the Nawa-i-Barakzayi district a central hub in the opium and heroin trade. One local dealer allegedly moved his poppy to heroin-producing labs as far away as Badakhshan and Takhar Provinces. Nawa-i-Barakzayi

8700-588: The latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods (fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dehydrated. The English word for opium is borrowed from Latin , which in turn comes from Ancient Greek : ὄπιον ( ópion ), a diminutive of ὀπός ( opós , "juice of a plant"). The word meconium (derived from the Greek for "opium-like", but now used to refer to newborn stools ) historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of

8816-453: 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. 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. These figures from 1906 have been criticized as overestimates. Smoking of opium came on

8932-469: The mixture. Eventually, laudanum became readily available and extensively used by the 18th century in Europe, especially England. Compared to other chemicals available to 18th century regular physicians, opium was a benign alternative to arsenic, mercury, or emetics, and it was remarkably successful in alleviating a wide range of ailments. Due to the constipation often produced by the consumption of opium, it

9048-551: The north, first issued a fatwa legalizing poppy cultivation in Helmand Province in 1981. After their victory over government forces, the Akhundzadas turned Nawa-I-Barakzayi into one of Afghanistan's top opium-producing areas: in 1994 farmers in the district cultivated an estimated 6,074 hectares of poppy, or 8.5% of Afghanistan's total. Under Taliban rule, Nawa-I-Barakzayi's opium production plummeted to as low as 505 hectares in 1996, although it would steadily increase throughout

9164-405: The operation were fired at daybreak (around 6:15 am) when a Marine unit received small-arms fire from a tree-line. Cobra attack helicopters were called in and made strafing runs at the tree line from where the fire was coming from. Marines also encountered a group of about 20 militants holed up in a mud-brick compound. The Marines refrained from calling in a fixed-wing airstrike and instead used

9280-627: The opium poppy or different species of poppies. The production methods have not significantly changed since ancient times. Through selective breeding of the Papaver somniferum plant, the content of the phenanthrene alkaloids morphine, codeine, and to a lesser extent thebaine has been greatly increased. In modern times, much of the thebaine, which often serves as the raw material for the synthesis for oxycodone , hydrocodone , hydromorphone , and other semisynthetic opiates, originates from extracting Papaver orientale or Papaver bracteatum . For

9396-470: The opium trade during the Japanese occupation of China. Mao Zedong government is generally credited with eradicating both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using unrestrained repression and social reform. Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops. Remaining opium production shifted south of

9512-488: The paradise of opium-eaters, can have had half the pleasure I had." De Quincey writes about the great English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), whose " Kubla Khan " is also widely considered to be a poem of the opium experience. Coleridge began using opium in 1791 after developing jaundice and rheumatic fever , and became a full addict after a severe attack of the disease in 1801, requiring 80–100 drops of laudanum daily. The earliest clear description of

9628-656: The period of military losses and Unequal Treaties as the "Century of National Humiliation", later defined to end with the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. In the northern provinces of Ningxia and Suiyuan in China, Chinese Muslim General Ma Fuxiang both prohibited and engaged in the opium trade. It was hoped that Ma Fuxiang would have improved the situation, since Chinese Muslims were well known for opposition to smoking opium. Ma Fuxiang officially prohibited opium and made it illegal in Ningxia, but

9744-511: The pods with an iron scoop; they called the juice aratpa-pal , possibly the root of Papaver . Opium production continued under the Babylonians and Egyptians . Opium was used with poison hemlock to put people quickly and painlessly to death. It was also used in medicine. Spongia somnifera , sponges soaked in opium, were used during surgery. The Egyptians cultivated opium thebaicum in famous poppy fields around 1300   BCE. Opium

9860-491: The port by the 1690s. Due to the growing British demand for Chinese tea and the Chinese Emperor's lack of interest in British commodities other than silver, British traders resorted to trade in opium as a high-value commodity for which China was not self-sufficient. The English traders had been purchasing small amounts of opium from India for trade since Ralph Fitch first visited in the mid-16th century. Trade in opium

9976-692: The power of the Roman Empire declined, the lands to the south and east of the Mediterranean Sea became incorporated into the Islamic Empires . Some Muslims believe hadiths , such as in Sahih Bukhari , prohibit every intoxicating substance, though the use of intoxicants in medicine has been widely permitted by scholars. Dioscorides' five-volume De Materia Medica , the precursor of pharmacopoeias , remained in use (which

10092-584: The presence of whites. Because of the low social status of immigrant workers, contemporary writers and media had little trouble portraying opium dens as seats of vice, 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 of London . Chinese men were deported for playing keno and sentenced to hard labor for opium possession. Due to this, both

10208-543: The primary source of illicit opium in East and Southeast Asia. Many local powerholders facilitated the trade during this period to finance conflicts over territory and political campaigns. In some areas food crops were eradicated to make way for opium, contributing to famines in Guizhou and Shaanxi Provinces between 1921 and 1923, and food deficits in other provinces. Beginning in 1915, Chinese nationalist groups came to describe

10324-494: The province into the Soviet areas ( Lashkar Gah and Gereshk ) and the mujahideen areas (everywhere else). After repeatedly taking indirect fire from mujahideen units operating in the Nawa area, the Soviets launched a clearing operation there in 1987 and set up a Sarandoy (Armed Police) Battalion. According to the local residents, over 20% of their homes were destroyed during the Soviet occupation. The Soviet occupation also saw

10440-548: The province. After the Soviet withdrawal, they administered the area for the Afghan government until they were overrun by the Akhundzadas in 1993. The Akhundzada victory was short-lived, however, as the Taliban conquered Nawa-i-Barakzayi along with rest of Helmand in late 1994 and early 1995. In July 2006 the Taliban chased out the police and seized control of the town of Nawa-I-Barakzayi. They held it for two weeks before being driven out by NATO and Afghan soldiers. In 2007, Nawa

10556-521: The region. Nawa-I-Barakzayi's name reflects the dominant Pashtun tribe in the district, the Barakzai . There is also a large minority of tribesmen from the Noorzai Tribe . Prior to the 1970s, it was called Shamalan after a small village at the south end of the district. As a result of land settlement, by 1975 there were 16 other tribes and ethnic groups in the area. The villages are located along

10672-402: The renowned "father of English medicine" or "English Hippocrates", to whom is attributed the quote, "Among the remedies which it has pleased Almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium." Use of opium as a cure-all was reflected in the formulation of mithridatium described in the 1728 Chambers Cyclopedia , which included true opium in

10788-485: The rise of poppy growing in Nawa District. During the Eighties the Akhundzadas gradually consolidated power over most of Helmand, eliminating other Mujahideen factions. Two prominent pro-government commanders in the Nawa area during this time were Khano and Allah Noor. Allah Noor was actually a native of Nawa-i-Barakzayi (Khano was from Farah Province ); both individuals recruited their militias from unemployed youths in

10904-417: The rivers, where irrigation is possible. Drought has affected this district since the late 20th century, reducing the number of livestock that can be sustained. A 2003 UN census recorded a population of 66,263 but a 2008 Afghan government survey counted 89,814 people. Most of the inhabitants are Pashtun . The district center is also called Nawa-I-Barakzayi . As of February 2010 the Nawa-i-Barakzayi district

11020-592: The sale of opium, except for a small amount for medicinal purposes. The ban punished sellers and opium den keepers, but not users of the drug. Opium was banned completely in 1799, and this prohibition continued until 1860. During the Qing dynasty, China opened itself to foreign trade under the Canton System through the port of Guangzhou (Canton), with traders from the East India Company visiting

11136-418: 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

11252-476: The standard medical textbook that Paracelsus burned in a public bonfire three weeks after being appointed professor at the University of Basel , also described the use of opium, though many Latin translations were of poor quality. Laudanum was originally the 16th-century term for a medicine associated with a particular physician that was widely well-regarded, but became standardized as " tincture of opium",

11368-551: The use of opium as a recreational drug in China came from Xu Boling, who wrote in 1483 that opium was "mainly used to aid masculinity, strengthen sperm and regain vigor", and that it "enhances the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies". He also described an expedition sent by the Ming dynasty Chenghua Emperor in 1483 to procure opium for a price "equal to that of gold" in Hainan , Fujian , Zhejiang , Sichuan and Shaanxi , where it

11484-567: The writings of Dioscorides , Galen , and Avicenna . Widespread medical use of unprocessed opium continued through the American Civil War before giving way to morphine and its successors, which could be injected at a precisely controlled dosage. A little of it, taken as much as a grain of ervum is a pain-easer, and a sleep-causer, and a digester...but being drank too much it hurts, making men lethargical, and it kills. Dioscorides , Introduction to The Herbal of Dioscorides

11600-573: Was a student and critic of Galen ; he made use of opium in anesthesia and recommended its use for the treatment of melancholy in Fi ma-la-yahdara al-tabib , "In the Absence of a Physician", a home medical manual directed toward ordinary citizens for self-treatment if a doctor was not available. The renowned Andalusian ophthalmologic surgeon Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi ("Abulcasis", 936–1013 CE) relied on opium and mandrake as surgical anesthetics and wrote

11716-519: Was an extensive and complicated system of BEIC agencies involved in the supervision and management of opium production and distribution in India. Bengal opium was highly prized, commanding twice the price of the domestic Chinese product, which was regarded as inferior in quality. Some competition came from the newly independent United States, which began to compete in Guangzhou, selling Turkish opium in

11832-425: Was described as "relatively peaceful". In 2008 the Taliban launched their spring offensive, Operation Ebrat , aimed at isolating Lashkar Gah, using Nawa-i-Barakzayi as a staging area for men and equipment coming north from Garmsir . In October 2008 the British launched a series of unsuccessful sweeps aimed at driving the Taliban out of Nawa. That same year there was one Afghan NGO working on an irrigation intake off

11948-508: Was edited and improved in the Arabic versions ) from the 1st to 16th centuries, and described opium and the wide range of its uses prevalent in the ancient world. Between 400 and 1200 AD, Arab traders introduced opium to China, and to India by 700 AD. The physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi of Persian origin ("Rhazes", 845–930 CE) maintained a laboratory and school in Baghdad , and

12064-577: Was fiercely against both of the Opium Wars Britain waged in China in the First Opium War initiated in 1840 and the Second Opium War initiated in 1857, denounced British violence against Chinese, and was ardently opposed to the British trade in opium to China. Gladstone lambasted it as " Palmerston's Opium War" and said that he felt "in dread of the judgments of God upon England for our national iniquity towards China" in May 1840. A famous speech

12180-487: Was found to be a good remedy for nervous disorders. Due to its sedative and tranquilizing properties, it was used to quiet the minds of those with psychosis, help with people who were considered insane, and also to help treat patients with insomnia. However, despite its medicinal values in these cases, it was noted that in cases of psychosis, it could cause anger or depression, and due to the drug's euphoric effects, it could cause depressed patients to become more depressed after

12296-489: 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. In 1712, Engelbert Kaempfer described addiction to madak : "No commodity throughout

12412-582: Was in Mesopotamia , approximately 3400   BCE, by Sumerians , who called the plant hul gil , the "joy plant". Tablets found at Nippur , a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad , described the collection of poppy juice in the morning and its use in production of opium. Cultivation continued in the Middle East by the Assyrians , who also collected poppy juice in the morning after scoring

12528-629: Was instrumental in gathering data from every Western-trained medical doctor in China, which was then published as William Hector Park compiled Opinions of Over 100 Physicians on the Use of Opium in China (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1899). The vast majority of these medical doctors were missionaries; the survey also included doctors who were in private practices, particularly in Shanghai and Hong Kong , as well as Chinese who had been trained in medical schools in Western countries. In England,

12644-488: Was killed by an IED in the district. On November 10, 2009, Corporal Justin J. Swanson with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment was killed by an IED in the district. In November 2009, 1/5 was replaced by 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines . In the late summer and early fall the Marines detained Haji Adam, one of Nawa's main drug lords, and turned his house into Combat Outpost (COP) Sullivan. In November two local officials were assassinated. On December 17, 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen ,

12760-474: 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". A large scale opium prohibition attempt began in 1729, when the Qing Yongzheng Emperor , disturbed by madak smoking at court and carrying out the government's role of upholding Confucian virtues, officially prohibited

12876-604: Was made by Gladstone in Parliament against the First Opium War . Gladstone criticized it as "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace". His hostility to opium stemmed from the effects of opium brought upon his sister Helen. Due to the First Opium war brought on by Palmerston , there was initial reluctance to join the government of Peel on part of Gladstone before 1841. Following China's defeat in

12992-410: Was one of the most effective treatments for cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea. As a cough suppressant, opium was used to treat bronchitis, tuberculosis, and other respiratory illnesses. Opium was additionally prescribed for rheumatism and insomnia. Medical textbooks even recommended its use by people in good health, to "optimize the internal equilibrium of the human body". During the 18th century, opium

13108-411: Was perceived as being one of the key centers of the Taliban movement. By early June 2009 over 10,000 Marines had poured into southern Afghanistan, the first wave of what President Obama promised would be a 21,000 strong surge. The Marines planned a series of operations to assault Taliban strongholds and then consolidate the Afghan government's position in the region. The first was Operation Strike of

13224-543: Was renewed on September 20, 1906, with an antiopium initiative intended to eliminate the drug problem within 10 years. The program relied on the turning of public sentiment against opium, with mass meetings at which opium paraphernalia were publicly burned, as well as coercive legal action and the granting of police powers to organizations such as the Fujian Anti-Opium Society. Smokers were required to register for licenses for gradually reducing rations of

13340-468: Was standardized, with production of balls of raw opium, 1.1–1.6 kg (2.4–3.5 lb), 30% water content, wrapped in poppy leaves and petals, and shipped in chests of 60–65 kg (132–143 lb) (one picul ). Chests of opium were sold in auctions in Calcutta with the understanding that the independent purchasers would then smuggle it into China. China had a positive balance sheet in trading with

13456-581: Was traded from Egypt by the Phoenicians and Minoans to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea , including Greece, Carthage , and Europe. By 1100   BCE, opium was cultivated on Cyprus , where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, and smoked. Opium was also mentioned after the Persian conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in

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