Narcotic Culture in China

[robot_mel]

I just read a great book written by the guy who I want to study for my masters with is called,"narcotic culture" subtitled a history of drugs in china. By Frank Dikotter, (whose the professor) and Lars Laamann and Zhou Xun, (who are his reasearch assistants.) It's just so nice to read a book by a proffesor that doesn't automatically assume that all drugs are bad and that everyone who takes them is an addict but looks at moderate use, and cultural use. He also made very interesting comparisons between Europe and China, he pointed out how in Europe we are mainly a drinking culture, in england, gin, tea, and coffee, in china it was more of a smoking culture. The book challenged the long held belief that it was opium addiction that caused, or contributed to, the downfall of China's society. Rather it put forth the argument that most smoking of opium was either social, ritualized and not excessive, or it was used as self medication. It stated how the "cures" for opium addicts, which at the time included, morphine, cocaine and heroin (which i learned was originally a trade marked name of the bayer company) were much more harmful than smoking opium had been. But I'd recommend the book for anyone interested in the late qing, or republican period of china, (it covers from 1800-1950, with a chapter at the end of the state of things today) It's an interesting alternative viewpoint, that talks about a lot of things which to me were new. I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in the history of drugs and the social ramifications of them and how they've been embraced and criminalized.