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Opium, has been used medicinally since ancient Mediterranean civilizations; one of the oldest known Egyptian papyri praises its painkilling powers. A Swiss physician popularized medical opium in the sixteenth century in a compound he named laudanum ("highly praised"). Laudanum, a tincture of opium dissolved in alcohol, became a basic medication, and by 1800 it was widely consumed by all who could afford it.

Britain imported tons of opium every year. Most of this stock was re-exported to the Far East, where the British were the world's pushers--they had used opium addiction as a means of opening oriental markets and they fought two Opium Wars (1839-42 and 1856-58) to keep their drug markets open. Even subtracting the re-exportation of opium, the British home market was enormous. Domestic consumption grew from 8.5 tons of opium in 1827 to 30.5 tons in 1859, spawning a network of respectable importers, auctioneers, brokers, and merchants. British governments shared in this lucrative trade through an opium tariff until 1860. The abolition of the tariff cut the price of opium to approximately one shilling (twenty-five cents) per ounce, roughly an agricultural laborer's weekly wages in 1860.

Opium was initially a drug of the educated and upper classes, because of its cost and its circulation by physicians. In the early 19th century, addiction was far more common among famous writers than criminals or the poor. Virtually the entire literary community of romanticism used opium. Thomas de Quincey became famous for a book entitled Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1856), which bluntly said, "Thou hast the keys of paradise, O just, subtle, and mighty opium!" Coleridge became renowned for a poem ("Kubla Kahn") that he composed after an opium-induced fantasy. Byron took a brand of laudanum called the Black Drop and satisfied references to it appear in his writing. Shelley used opium to relieve stress. Keats consumed such large quantities that he even considered using it for suicide. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spinal problems made her dependent on a daily dose of opium, and her husband concluded that "sleep only came to her in a red hood of poppies." Sir Walter Scott began taking huge quantities during an illness and wrote at least one of his novels under its influence. Similar lists could be drawn of political figures (the friends of George IV often found him stupefied by opium) or even famous preachers (William Wilberforce was an addict because of his ulcer medication). This situation lasted until the Pharmacy Act of 1868 introduced the first restrictions because the government feared that workers were starting to use opium for its pleasure-giving properties. Further restrictions appeared in the 1890s when the government began to fear that immigrants, especially the Chinese, congregated in "opium dens" and plotted crimes. . . .

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