Opium smoker

“ In the United States the opium-smoker is invariably unworthy. Not long ago the New York police raided the apartment of a physician where were found thirty or forty opium-pipes and more than a hundred pounds of opium, either crude or prepared for smoking. I have known fewer than half a dozen physicians whose drug vice was purely social, however. The victims of drag habit who achieved it through a tendency toward dissipation are almost invariably denizens of the under-world ”

“ Thousands of prominent men are ruined every year.
Everywhere along the highroad and in the cities and villages of Shansi you see the opium face. The opium smoker, like the opium eater, rapidly loses flesh when the habit has fixed itself on him. ”

“ Opium may first be taken in a small quantity to cure toothache; the small quantity leads to large quantities; the large quantities, or even small ones taken regularly, lead at last to the man becoming an habitual opium-smoker: and this means that the victim's health becomes injured, and that he is unfit for any work. If he then leave off his opium, he becomes ill, has dreadful pain, which sometimes lasts till he smokes again; he has no appetite for food, cannot sleep at night, and looks haggard and miserable. ”

“ The opium smoker cannot work hard: he finds it difficult to apply his mind to a problem or his body to a task. As the habit becomes firmly fastened on him, there is a perceptible weakening of his moral fiber; he shows himself unequal to emergencies which make any sudden demand upon him. If opium is denied him, he will lie and steal in order to obtain it.
Opium smoking is a costly vice. ”

“ Crime too often follows the destitution caused by opium-smoking; for at all costs opium must be had. Thefts, robberies, or even murders may result. The wretched culprit may have to flee from justice, or to make his escape from a neighbourhood which will no longer tolerate him. The very dogs pursue him. Probably the bucket in which the wanderer carries his pipe, and the labourer’s hat slung behind him, are both stolen. Some cave among the hills may shelter him, or the rocks may shield him from the cutting wind.
No. 11.
The downward course of the opium-smoker is now very rapid. ”

“ A confirmed opium smoker really cannot exist beyond a certain time without the deadly drug, and those who are forced to exert themselves are generally provided with some opium pills, which they take in order to give them strength until they can obtain the desired pipe. ”

“ The inhaler of tobacco gets his effect in precisely the same way that the opium-smoker gets his—the rapid absorption by the tissues of the bronchial tubes. It may be news to the average man to hear that the man who smokes opium moderately suffers no more physical deterioration than the man who inhales tobacco moderately. The excessive smoker of cigarettes experiences the same mental and physical disturbance when deprived of them that the opium-smoker experiences when deprived of opium. ”

“ In smoking, only part of the drug is consumed; the ash when re-prepared yields fifty per cent of opium. This accounts for the fact that the saloon-keepers sell opium at what appears to be cost price; the ash yields the profit and pays for light, house-rent, and attendance. It is estimated that the immoderate smoker consumes not over four pounds a year, and the average annual consumption of all classes is half a pound. If, as this implies, half the adult population smoke, and opium-smoking is the evil it is represented to be, why are there not visible inherited ill effects? ”

“ The Chinese smoke opium from the age of twenty to twenty-five years. The immediate effect is a sort of dizzy sensation. The preoccupations of the mind disappear, as do also all ailments of the body. Then comes a noisy delirium, a kind of insanity, in which the subject is deeply agitated; he is apt to hurl down and break everything around him. Sometimes he rushes out of the house, attacks the first passer-by, and not infrequently in his frenzy has committed murder.
The opium smoker, as well as the eater, is obliged rapidly to increase the dose of his poison. ”

“ They visit the Chinese opium dens two or three times a week. They say that the effect is exhilarating—that it is the same as intoxication produced by drinking liquor, except that under the influence of opium a man has all his senses, and his brain is almost supernaturally bright and clear. An American told me that he had been an opium-smoker for eighteen years, and said there were about fifty persons in Virginia City who were of the initiated. In San Francisco he says there are over five hundred white opium-smokers, many women among them. ”

“ The quantity of opium taken up at each dip by the instrument used, a three-cornered, flat-headed sort of needle specially adapted for the purpose, is about the size of a pea. The practised opium-smoker holds his breath for a considerable time, and passes the smoke through the nostrils. ”

“ The wealthiest mandarins, the most intelligent merchants, smoke opium, as do the humblest coolies. The use of opium is like the use of tobacco among ourselves; nor does it produce any greater mischief, at least among the well-to-do classes; but with the common people it is different. There are establishments specially devoted to opium—smoking-places where, for a trifling sum of money, one may gratify this appetite. Rarely does a smoker leave before he is fully under the influence of the drug, just as the drunkard does not quit the gin-shop until he is fuddled. ”

“ It has also come to be a custom in some regions, to furnish opium to the guests at weddings, and this may become an item of a very elastic nature. Besides this, a man who smokes opium is naturally incapacitated from taking even ordinary care of the stores under his charge. If he is himself a smoker, and if opium is one of the articles provided for the occasion, it will not be strange if all his opium-smoking comrades embrace the opportunity to visit him, when they must be invited to take a pipe—of course at the expense of the master of ceremonies. ”

“ Unfortunately we could get no reliable information as to the number of opium-smokers, and the quantity of opium consumed, in Singapore. Mr. Allen, a North American missionary, estimates the number of persons who surrender themselves to this practice throughout the Chinese Empire, at from 4-5,000,000, who annually consume about 50,000 chests of opium. The quantity consumed by each smoker daily varies in an extraordinary degree. ”

“ The dark side of the opium traffic has since been so fully exposed, that but little more remains to be said, and although even the most sanguine persons 523have ceased to hope that the trade can ever be entirely suppressed, yet it is at least consolatory to know that, according to the best calculations, the number of opium smokers throughout China, in a population that is to say of 420,000,000, is not above 4,000,000 to 5,000,000, and that an ordinary smoker does not on an average consume more than one mace or about one drachm [182] of opium, worth about 90 cash, or 3 1⁄2d. ”

“ Sometimes people smoke in their own houses, and sometimes they resort to horrid places regularly set apart for opium-smoking. In Hong-Kong, where we are going, there will be many an opium-smoker who will buy this drug in quantities when he cannot even afford to purchase clothing. ”

“ Smoking seems to be the most stupefying manner in which solid opium can be consumed, the one which acts most powerfully and injuriously upon the brain. But opium-smoking is hardly likely to take a strong hold on English or European taste. A piece of opium no larger than a pea, chopped up and mixed with a large bowlful of tobacco, produces on the veteran tobacco-smoker a nauseating effect powerfully recalling that of the first pipe of his boyhood ”

“ The opium face has been best described as a "peculiarly withered and bloated countenance." With this face is always associated a thin body and a languid gait. Opium gets such a powerful grip on a confirmed smoker that it is actually unsafe for him to give up the habit without medical aid. ”

“ When cooked, the ball of opium was thrust into a small hole in the bamboo opium pipe. Then the smoker, lying on his side, drew the flame of the lamp against this opium and the smoke came up through the bamboo tube of the pipe and was inhaled. One cooking of opium makes never more than three whiffs of the pipe, sometimes only two. The effect on the novice is very exhilarating, but the seasoned smoker is forced to consume more and more of the drug to secure the desired effect. In one of these dens we watched a large Chinese prepare his opium. ”

“ The little plug of opium in the orifice crackles and burns in the heat of the flame, and we notice that the smoker now and then scrapes towards the orifice in the bowl, all the particles of opium which remain unburnt. He finally clears the orifice by thrusting the wire into it several times, and disconnects the bowl from the stem. We notice it contains an appreciable quantity of black, evil-smelling opium residue. This is the “dross,” carefully preserved [49] by smokers, and later on boiled with raw opium to which it is believed to add strength. ”

“ Hobson, another medical missionary, and as such entirely averse to the trade, says: “Opium-smoking is not nearly so fatal to life as spirit-drinking is with us; its use is even compatible with longevity.” It is very common to hear Chinese acknowledge that they have smoked opium for ten, twenty, or thirty years. Dr. Hobson mentions one case in which the smoker began at nineteen, and smoked for fifty-one years. [78] Further evidence is surely unnecessary to prove that opium-smoking is not necessarily, nor even [Pg 70] commonly, destructive of life. ”

“ Opium-smokers are gregarious and partake of the drug together. As the fumes mount to their brains, their intellects become enlivened, their tongues unloosed and the conversation ranges over all subjects in heaven and earth. ”

“ Opium is smoked everywhere, at all times, by men and women, in the Celestial Empire; and, once accustomed to it, the victims cannot dispense with it, except by suffering horrible bodily contortions and agonies. A great smoker can smoke as many as eight pipes a day; but he dies in five years. It was in one of these dens that Fix and Passepartout, in search of a friendly glass, found themselves. Passepartout had no money, but willingly accepted Fix’s invitation in the hope of returning the obligation at some future time. ”

“ But even if not sublimed in the process, morphia would, in the opinion of Mr. Hugh M’Callum (Government [45] Analyst at Hong Kong) , be deposited in the bowl of the pipe before the smoke reached the mouth of the smoker. The bitter taste of morphia is not noticeable when smoking opium, and it is therefore possible that the pleasure derived from smoking opium is due to some product formed during combustion. This supposition is rendered probable by the fact that the opium most prized by smokers is not that containing the most morphia. ”

“ The anti-opium sentiment is found in the highest official circles, in the army, in the navy, in the schools. Within the past year or so it has been growing steadily stronger. Opium-smoking used to be taken as a matter of course; now, where you find a man smoking too much, you also find a group of friends apologizing for him. I have already explained that opium-smoking is not tolerated in the “new” army. There is now a rapidly growing number of officials and merchants who refuse to employ opium-smokers in any capacity. ”

“ Exposure to the weather and want of food accelerate the injurious effects of the opium. No one would think of giving a night’s shelter to a man whose imperious craving for opium would compel him to rob his benefactor before morning. ”

“ Latitude is allowed smokers over sixty years of age, but those under sixty “must get cured before arriving at sixty years of age. Persons who smoke or buy opium without certificates will be punished. No new smokers will be allowed from the date of prohibition. The amount of opium supplied to each smoker must decrease by one-third each year, so that within a few years there will be no opium smoked at all.” Officials who overstep the law are to be deprived of their rank. ”

“ When once indulged in it is difficult, and sometimes dangerous, to throw off the habit. Were the pipe suddenly withdrawn a painful physical re-action would set in, and death itself has been known to ensue. The smoker may wean himself from the use of opium by taking gradually diminishing inward doses of the drug, which allay the craving for the pipe ”

“ You will find some fifteen at a time lying upon couches, inhaling the fumes, which seem to put them in a happy state, after which they gradually recover. The opium leaves its bad effects in prostration of the system, and the habitual smoker may readily be known from the expression of the face and eyes. The manufacture and sale of the article, which is a monopoly of the East India Company, is its greatest source of revenue. ”

“ Opium-smoking appears here as elsewhere in China to be becoming yearly a more recognized habit,—almost a necessity of the people. Those who use the drug now do so openly, and native public opinion attaches no odium to its use, so long as it is not carried to excess.... In the city of Amoy, and in adjacent cities and towns, the proportion of opium-smokers is estimated to be from 15 to 20 per cent. of the adult population.... ”