Opium: How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World

Halpern, the Boston Center for Addiction Treatment’s former medical director, and Blistein (David’s Inferno), a PBS documentarian, study opium’s evolution (into morphine, heroin, oxycodone) and impact on world culture in an expansive but disappointing survey. To disprove any notion that “this [current] crisis is worse, or fundamentally different, than any that has come before it,” the authors start in ancient Egypt, where opium was “part of an everyday health regimen,” and proceed to cover in rather repetitive fashion the first recorded drug crisis (in medieval Persia), the Silk Road between Asia and Europe, the Opium Wars between China and Great Britain, and today’s Silk Road drug marketplace on the dark web. The authors, having demonstrated the persistent failure of drug eradication to alleviate addiction, whether with Lin Ze Xu’s mass destruction of Canton’s opium in 1839 or Nixon’s war on drugs, end with their own suggestions, which include creating more needle exchanges and safe-injection sites and extending insurance coverage for addiction treatment. Their empathetic message is admirable, but the historical assertions are too often speculative—such as that Alexander the Great “undoubtedly” sought pain relief from war wounds with opium, which “likely” exacerbated his recklessness. Though well-intentioned, this study is unfortunately undermined by a weak narrative and a less than savvy use of history. (Aug.)