Drugs of one sort or another have been used by humans probably
since before history began to be written. The opium poppy was cultivated in
lower Mesopotamia as early as 3400 BCE. Opium was introduced to China by Arab
and Turkish traders in 6th or 7th century. At first used
sparingly as a means to control pain, it spread more widely in the 17th century
when the use of “ordinary” tobacco (which contains nicotine, another sort of drug) became popular. Opium
became such a problem in China that the emperor Yung-cheng outlawed the sale
and smoking of it. However, the Portuguese and then the British discovered that
they could import opium from India and sell it in China at a considerable
profit, purchasing goods such as tea, porcelain, and silk which were in high
demand in Europe. The Chinese weren’t much interested in European goods, but
there continued to be a demand for opium. Two opium wars didn’t do much to stop
the trade, but eventually the Chinese communist government was able to mostly
eradicate opium smoking.
Diacetylmorphine (now known as heroin) was first synthesized
in 1874 by Alder Wright, an English chemist. It did not come into general use
until independently created by Felix Hoffmann, a chemist working for a company
in Germany that later became Bayer (of Aspirin fame). From 1898 to 1910 heroin
was marketed as a non addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. At
which point it was discovered that heroin rapidly metabolizes into morphine and
is quicker acting (and of course addictive). A great embarrassment for the
Bayer company.
Coca leaves were chewed by the Inca three thousand years
before the birth of Christ. Later, the Spanish supplied their South American
Indian silver mine workers with coca to make them easier to control. Cocaine
was first extracted from coca by (another) German chemist, Albert Niemann in
1859. Freud used the drug himself, and promoted it for use in depression and sexual
impotence. And apparently Coca Cola once contained 9 milligrams of cocaine per
glass.
Up to the early 1900’s cocaine and opium elixirs, tonics and
wines (e.g. a Bordeaux wine laced with coca leaves) were used by people of all
social classes including Thomas Edison. Poor blacks and other workers were
often given cocaine by employers to increase productivity; it was cheaper than
alcohol. By 1912 the United States reported 5,000 cocaine related deaths in one
year. The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 regulated and licensed drug
production in the U.S. The Jones-Miller Act of 1922 seriously restricted cocaine
manufacturing.
In 1912 the International Opium Convention was signed at the
Hague by China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Persia,
Portugal, Russia, Siam, The UK and British overseas territories including
British India. After 1919 all the countries that signed the Versailles Peace
Treaty also became parties to the Hague Convention. At this time, the drugs
included to be controlled were opium, morphine, cocaine and heroin.
World War I let to rapidly rising drug use in several
countries, as well as among soldiers. Under the auspices of The League of Nations an Opium Advisory
Committee took over the functions laid down in the Hague Convention. The OAC
discovered that world opium and coca production exceeded the world`s medical
needs at least by a factor of 10. A couple of conventions were held in 1924/25
to try and encourage nations to gradually stop the manufacture and trade of
prepared opium. Conventions to attempt further controls were also held in 1931
and 1936.
So as far as Spinsters in Jeopardy goes ,and efforts
to control drugs, Marsh did her research. On a side note, one review I read,
said that no parent would leave their sleeping child alone while going to eat
(there is a child kidnapping as part of the story). Well, in May of 2007, a
family did just that in Portugal, with their children, resulting in the
kidnapping of their daughter, who has so far not been found.
As of 1946, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs
took over illegal drug control efforts. The United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime produced a document called “A Century of International Drug Control” that
contains many additional interesting facts (1909 – 2009).