Victorian attitudes toward drug use andaddiction, and opium addiction in particular, are hard to relate to our present view of substance (ab)use, as our knowledge of the impact of drugs, our physiological responses to drug use, and potential risks are incomparably moreextensive than they were in the late nineteenth century. The second part of the 1900s were in fact a time of both scientific and personal experimentation with drugs. The scientific knowledge of drugs at thetime did not look into (or sometimes even think about) the detrimental sides of opium use, like addiction or dysfunction, but primarily on the mitigation of suffering from incurable illnesses. Recreationally, opium (or laudanum) was the affordable and the simple path to pleasure much needed at the end of a work week that spanned in excess an unfathomable 120 hours.

    It would be inaccurate to say that the Britishgovernment was not aware of the addictive nature of opium atthe time when it was becoming the most widely used means of improving thequality of life for masses of working people. Not only had opium beenbanned because of its deleterious effects in China years before the reignof Queen Victoria; it was also a well-known fact that it was primarily theBritish traders who were pushing it in order to reduce the budget deficitcoming out of the tea trade with China, backed by the power of Britishroyal fleet.

    In a showdown that would decide the history ofdrug use all over the world today, only two years after Queen Victoriainherited the throne, British trade interests in the Chinese opium market were defended in a series of Opium Wars, the first one of which started after China persisted in its intention to uproot opium use by bridling the British drug trafficking that had decimated the Chinese work force and created entire generations of drug-addicts. These wars were an indication not only of the undeniable strength of the British state at the time, but also of the inextricable link between economy and politics, and the complete split of moral standards in any imperialist agenda.