Opium Museum
Hansa, her son Albert and me went to Golden Triangle to visit Hall of Opium.
In this photograph you see three countries ( Golden Triangle) having a common border on the river Mekong. I am taking the photograph from Thailand. On the left is Burma, on the right is Laos. Two big buildings you see in Burma and Laos are casinos. Gambling is not allowed in Thailand. So people go to gamble to these two countries.
A short distance from here is the Opium Museum. It is a huge building. I did not find a good place to photograph the whole building, so I photographed only parts of it.
Opium history starts with human history. Opium was found in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Europe. In the museum, the fall of China Empire was explained by the opium addiction of Chinese people. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opium was brought by English ships in big quantities from India to China. China had two opium wars ( in 1839-42 and 1856-60 )
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/~dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM
Both were lost to the English Empire. An agreement was signed permitting England to bring opium in unlimited quantities with no duty. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century, in China were 14 million opium addicts from a total of 400 million. One of 30 people was an opium addict.
Communist rule after WWII eradicated opium addiction. There was no word about methods used by Mao for this action.
Opium was used very much during wars. It was given to wounded soldiers as a pain reliever. It was usually smoked. At the beginning of the 20th-century German company, Bayer purified opium and made it injectable and named the new drug “morphine”. Injected morphine works much faster than smoked opium but it is very addictive. Bayer purified it even better hoping to do less addictive drugs. A new drug was named “Heroine” ( for soldiers – heroes) but the drug was even more addictive.
Now in all countries opium poppy is grown legally under the state supervision for medicine. But in many countries, it is also grown illegally. Afghanistan produces more illegal opium than all other countries together. Illegal production of opium in Afghanistan increased many folds after 2003. Mexico looks almost innocent comparing to Afghanistan.
Hansa, her son Albert and me went to Golden Triangle to visit Hall of Opium.
In this photograph you see three countries ( Golden Triangle) having a common border on the river Mekong. I am taking the photograph from Thailand. On the left is Burma, on the right is Laos. Two big buildings you see in Burma and Laos are casinos. Gambling is not allowed in Thailand. So people go to gamble to these two countries.
A short distance from here is the Opium Museum. It is a huge building. I did not find a good place to photograph the whole building, so I photographed only parts of it.
The trees in the picture below cover the central part of the building.
Opium history starts with human history. Opium was found in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Europe. In the museum, the fall of China Empire was explained by the opium addiction of Chinese people. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opium was brought by English ships in big quantities from India to China. China had two opium wars ( in 1839-42 and 1856-60 )
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/~dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM
Both were lost to the English Empire. An agreement was signed permitting England to bring opium in unlimited quantities with no duty. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century, in China were 14 million opium addicts from a total of 400 million. One of 30 people was an opium addict.
Communist rule after WWII eradicated opium addiction. There was no word about methods used by Mao for this action.
Opium was used very much during wars. It was given to wounded soldiers as a pain reliever. It was usually smoked. At the beginning of the 20th-century German company, Bayer purified opium and made it injectable and named the new drug “morphine”. Injected morphine works much faster than smoked opium but it is very addictive. Bayer purified it even better hoping to do less addictive drugs. A new drug was named “Heroine” ( for soldiers – heroes) but the drug was even more addictive.
Now in all countries opium poppy is grown legally under the state supervision for medicine. But in many countries, it is also grown illegally. Afghanistan produces more illegal opium than all other countries together. Illegal production of opium in Afghanistan increased many folds after 2003. Mexico looks almost innocent comparing to Afghanistan.
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