P. E. Caquet, "Opium's Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs" (Reaktion Books, 2022)
The global war on drugs began some 150 years before US President Richard Nixon launched the current chapter of America\u2019s drug war in 1971. In\xa0Opium\u2019s Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs\xa0(Reaktion Books, 2022),\xa0P. E. Caquet tells the story of \u201chow an ever-larger group of mind-altering products came to be prohibited throughout the world, for what reasons, and with what effects.\u201d The story opens with Britain\u2019s two Opium Wars against the Chinese. Caquet shows how policies based on the properties of opium have been applied to disparate substances. The book describes how a worldwide effort, long led by the United States, to eliminate drugs at their sources has had unplanned consequences \u2013 economic, social, and political \u2013 while falling far short of the drug war\u2019s stated goals. Finally, Caquet describes how \u201cthe last decade has seen an increasingly direct challenge to the international drug-control system.\u201d\xa0Opium\u2019s Orphans\xa0is a wide-ranging account of a profoundly consequential history whose origins, rationale, and effects raise difficult questions of the limits of governmental action and the scope of human freedom.\n\ufeffSteve Beitler\u2019s work in the history of medicine focuses on how pain has been understood, treated, experienced, and represented. His recently published articles examined the history of opiates in American football and surveyed the history of therapeutic drugs. He can be reached at steve@stevebeitler.com\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law