FROM FREE TRADE TO PROHIBITION: A CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE MODERN ASIAN OPIUM TRADE

Abstract

The article begins by exploring America\u27s current war on drugs and how it represents a misuse of its power and misperception of the global narcotics trade. It continues and puts forth that Asia\u27s opium production may soon increase to levels that will defeat the war on drugs now being waged by the United State and United Nations and goes into the the extent of Opium production in Asia. It then looks at a history of Opium trade, including the era which began prohibition and then the cold war, which began the expansion of the Asian opium trade. The article then discusses bilateral suppression. In 1972, President Nixon began the war on drugs, which actually stimulated the global market. Opium trade and production increased through the 1980\u27s and 1990\u27s. The article concludes by stating that production of drugs responds in unforeseen ways to reform, and before starting such reform, anti-narcotics agencies need to consider the full range of outcomes