Opium has travelled a long way, physically and in social ideologies, from one of the "exotic" psychoactive substances-turned-luxury items (like caffeine, tea, or nicotine), to becoming a commodity of mass consumption.

    In 1606, the ships chartered by QueenElizabeth I were first instructed to transport the finest opium from India back to England, although the Isles first encountered some form of the chemical during Roman rule. In 1680, an English apothecary, Thomas Sydenham, introducesSydenham's Laudanum, a compound of opium containing sherry wine and herbs. Its potency as a pain killer makes it a popular remedy for many ailments. At the same time, the use of opium in China is spreading, as the Dutch merchants introduce the use of pipe for opium–smoking.

    In response to the looming epidemic of opiumaddiction, ChineseEmperor, Yung Cheng, bans opium smoking and its domestic sale in 1729,except for medicinal use. This one and the following attempts of theChinese rulers to curb illicit opium use will continue to be challengedfor years (or centuries) by British trade interests. Starting from 1750when British East India Company took control of Bengal and Bihar, the mainopium—producing areas in India, British import of opium into Chinawas ever—inflating. In 1767, the number of chests imported illegallyreached two thousand a year.

    By 1793 the British East India Company managesto establish a monopoly on the opium trade, prohibiting all poppy growersin India from selling opium to any of the competitor trading companies. Bybuying a "license" to grow opium, however, the poppy farmers were notgaining the right to be protected from competition, but rather learnedthat they would be punished if they didn’t produce as much opium asthemonopolist expected.

    China's emperor Kia King, responding to adrastic increase in opium use in China, issues an edict forbidding opium, which falls short of being enforced in the shadow of Britain's mercantile marines. By 1800, the British Levant company is purchasing nearly half of all the opium coming from Smyrna, a Turkish city in Asia Minor, strictly for importation into Europe and the United States.

    In 1803, German physician Friedrich Sertuernerfrom Paderborn discovers the active ingredient of opium — morphine — bydissolving it in acid and neutralizing it with ammonia. European physicians already celebrate opium as "God's own medicine" for its reliability andlong-lasting effects. American merchants join in the opium trade, smuggling the contraband item from Turkey to China, or buying it from the British, and trying to resell it to the Chinese. In a telling reversal, John Jacob of New York City gave up smuggling from Turkey to China in 1816 to dedicate his American Fur(?!) Company exclusively to sales to England.

    The early nineteenth century sees the firstmention of opium by English literary figures like John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, associated with the period of Romanticism. Coleridge openly talks about his use of laudanum, as a sedative used to alleviate his stomach pain,but also as a recreational drug. Thomas DeQuincey's "Confessions of anEnglish Opium-Eater" detail his pleasures and pains coming from opium use which he initially justifies as the only resort he had to soothe his unbearable stomach pain. However, DeQuincey's accounts of the pros and cons of laudanum addiction also credit opium with an incomparable power to inspire, enlighten, and expand intellectual and sensual abilities.

    Only seven years before Queen Victoriainherited the throne at age 18, the British use of opium reached an alltime high — as many as 22,000 pounds of opium were imported from Turkey and India in 1830.