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Opium

The Method of Smoking Opium

 There are two basic ways to indulge in opium:

1. To eat it.
2. To smoke it.
 Smoking opium was chiefly confined to China, the East Indies, the eastern seaboard
of Indo-China, and Taiwan
 Opium had to be concentrated before it was used.
 A method of preparing opium for smoking was published in the British
Pharmacopoeia in the early nineteenth century:
Take of opium in thin slices, 1lb; distilled water 6 pints. Macerate the opium in 2
pints of water for 24 hours, and express the liquor. Reduce the residue of the
opium to a uniform pulp, macerate it again in 2 pints of water for 24 hours, and
express. Repeat the operation a third time. Mix the liquors, strain through
flannel, and evaporate by a water-bath until the extract has acquired a suitable
consistence for forming pills.
 This process reduced the opium mass by 50% and doubled its concentration.
 In China, these pea-sized pills were known as chan du.
 There were many different variations of opium pipes. For the most part, they were
made of a broad tube with a smaller, usually metal, tube protruding about two-thirds
of the way down, ending a tiny cup or bowl up to 2 centimeters across.
 The smoker reclined on his side, and held the pipe in one hand. The opium pill was
impaled on a thin metal spike and inserted into the bowl of the pipe. The bowl was
then inverted over a spirit lamp until the opium pill melted and began to vaporize.
These fumes were inhaled.
 The smoker would then fall into a deep sleep, waking up subdued and calm.

Opium Use in Canada

 Prior to 1908, the importation, manufacture, and use of opium was legal in Canada.
 Opium was available in Canada a decade prior to the influx of Chinese railway
workers in the 1880’s.
 The rapid increase in the number of opium factories from one to twelve during
1881—1884 suggests that the Chinese railway workers were a significant market.
 The opening of the Canadian Pacific railway increased the market for opium and
drove the price from $7/pound to $15/pound in 1888.
 Opium was not limited to the Chinese alone; there were many white users as well,
both male and female.
 Vancouver issued its first opium license in 1888, and a second one in 1889.
 By the turn of the century, white attitudes towards the drug had become negative, and
police raids on opium dens became more frequent.
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The Chinese and the Use of Opium in Canada

 Abroad, many Chinese lived oppressed lives with only one familiar means of release:
opium smoking.
 Opium relieved the physical pain of laboring, suppressed sexual desire in a
predominately male society, and diminished feelings of homesickness.
 Many Chinese only took up smoking once they reached Canada.
 Opium smoking generally spread to the non-Chinese population wherever the
Chinese settled.