Drug use and addiction are simultaneously a person-level phenomenon (individuals use drugs and may become addicted), an inter-person or social-level phenomenon (using is a social practice often done with others that creates and reinforces meanings and values), and a politic-level phenomenon (economic, medical, political, legal, religious, and military powers create, maintain, and reinforce oppressive structures, institutions, and practices). The person, inter-person, and politic levels are woven together so that it’s impossible to untangle their elements.

In the late 1830s, the British demanded that China open its markets to opium imports. Chinese unwillingness was met with British military and naval authority. China was forced to pay exorbitant fees to the British government, which wreaked havoc on the Chinese economy, creating large-scale poverty and driving Chinese migration to the U.S. West.

In the U.S., the Chinese often worked digging mines and putting down railroad tracks. “Chinatowns” began springing up across the country as railways were laid. Within these towns were dens that were akin to social clubs where Chinese laborers would smoke opium for relief and pleasure. Reporting on these “Chinatowns” by white-owned newspapers created a moral panic and perhaps drew more white people to them.

White people had been consuming “medically-approved” morphine in a variety of ways, most commonly in the form of laudanum,........

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