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Opium Facts PDF
Opium Facts PDF
Opium
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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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.