DRUG
USE IN ASIA
By
Dr.fourkan Ali
Asia is
the world's largest continent; India and China are its most populous countries.
More than half the world's population lives in Asia. Thus we find considerable
variation in drug use and drug problems there, not only among the various
countries but also within them. Unfortunately, the available information about
drug use in Asia is sketchy and fragmentary; few good studies have been
published. Epidemiological data are almost completely absent. The rapid social,
economic, cultural, and political transformations are adding to the complexity
of drug-use patterns and associated drug-related problems in Asia and
worldwide. This article provides a broad overview of the historical, cultural,
political and economic forces that have shaped drug use in Asia. It should be
kept in mind that current drug use in many parts of Asia is tied to
drug-production. Myanmar and Afghanistan produce most of the world's illegal
opium, while the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, and
Laos) find users contracting HIV infections from contaminated needles.
TEA
Most
people know the tea plant Camellia sinensis in the brewed form
of TEA. Tea has been part of Asian culture for thousands of years. Its use
seems to have originated in southeastern China. It is mentioned in the very
early Chinese medical literature. To a large extent, the medical benefits of
tea can be ascribed to the chemical theophylline, which depending on its use
can have eithermildly calming or stimulating effects. The use of tea as a
popular beverage and its production in large quantities has only been
documented since the sixth century. The history of tea is also a history of
international trade. Japan was one of the first countries to import tea from
China, and tea became part of the Japanese culture. Chanoyu (the
way of the tea) is a meditation ritual introduced in Japan by Zen Buddhist
monks several hundred years ago, and elaborate tea ceremonies developed there.
This tea ceremony is still taught and practiced in modern Japan.
Tea became
the primary stimulant beverage not only in China and Japan but also in India,
Malaysia, the Russian empire, and other Asian countries.
In the
1700s, tea was imported directly to Great Britain and to the British colonies
by the East India Company. Even today, there are tea-preferring countries like
Britain and coffee-preferring countries like Spain. The difference in
preference goes back to the time of colonial trading: Those countries with
tea-producing colonies drank tea, because it was cheaper than coffee; countries
with coffee-producing colonies drank coffee, because for them it was cheaper
than tea.
OPIUM
After tea,
the drug most often associated with Asia is Opium. Opium is prepared from the
opium poppy (Papaver somniferum ), which grows well in the alkaline
limestone soil of Turkey and Iran, east through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the
northern mountainous areas of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos. The
area forms a crescent, thus the name Golden Crescent. The mountainous areas of
Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos are known as the Golden Triangle.
Medical
historians have been able to document that Arabian physicians of Asia Minor
extracted raw opium from the seed pods of the poppy and used it to treat pain
and diarrhea before a.d. 1000. Arabian traders began exporting opium to India
and China about that time, and it also appeared in trade shipments to Europe.
Although accurate documentation is scarce, some observers claim that opium use
spread faster in precolonial and colonial India, than in China. A British royal
commission investigated Indian opium use in 1895 and claimed that the people of
India had not suffered detrimental effects from the taking of opium. The
situation was different in China. The British traded Indian-grown opium for
Chinese tea and porcelain. This led to an increasing supply of opium in China,
associated with an increasing use of opium for recreational purposes. During
the nineteenth century a raging epidemic of opium smoking in China led to a
situation of great concern to the Chinese government. In an attempt to cut the
supply of opium, the Chinese government tried to close its ports to British
trade. This resulted in the Opium wars (1839-1842), but Britain won the war and
the right to continue trading opium to China.
The
different responses of India and China to the availability of opium might be
explained, to some degree, by the way this drug was introduced to the
population. In India, opium was introduced as a medicinal plant, to be taken by
mouth and swallowed. In contrast, in China during the 1500s, Portuguese sailors
had just introduced New World tobacco smoking as a form of a recreational drug
use. Many Chinese, who had just picked up tobacco smoking, substituted opium
for tobacco. Thus opium was not only introduced as a nonmedicinal recreational
drug, but it was also introduced in a different route of administration. Drugs
inhaled through the lungs seem to produce faster and more severe dependence
than those ingested through the gastrointestinal tract.
Effective
government control of opium smoking in China did not become possible until late
in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Britain, the United
States, and other world powers signed international agreements to help curb
worldwide supply and distribution networks. They cooperated because opium abuse
spread and started to affect these countries directly. In 1930, the League of
Nations Commission of Inquiry into the Control of Opium Smoking in the Far East
reported that opium use had not been prohibited in any Asian country except the
Philippines. By 1950, this situation had changed dramatically. Many Asian
countries placed high priority on narcotic-control policies. Harsh penalties,
including the death penalty, had been reinstated for drug trafficking and
possession of opium and derivatives, like Morphine and Heroin.
Despite
these government actions, opium and its derivatives are still used widely in
regions where they are grown. In 1990, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos supplied
about 56 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States. By 1999, Latin
America supplied most of the heroin to the United States, accounting for 82
percent of the heroin seized in the U.S. The Southeast Asian opium crop, which
was on the rise in the early 1990s, suffered a sharp decline due to adverse
weather in the later 1990s. China has moved to contain opium trafficking. In
1998, China began a "Drug Free Communities" program to eliminate drug
trafficking and abuse as well as drug-related crime.
CANNABIS
Known in
the United States mainly as the Mari-Juana plant, Cannabis sativa may
first have been cultivated in Asia in a region just north of Afghanistan. From
there it seems to have spread to China and India. It is mentioned in the early
medical literature of China (e.g., in the Shenmong bencao ) as
well as in India (e.g., in the Sushruta samhita ). Early
nonmedical use has also been documented.
Cannabis use seems to have become popular especially in India
and the Islamic countries. The many social rules associated with its use are
evidence of its long-standing integration into Indian culture. Traditional
Indian society was divided into hereditary classes or castes. The highest caste
was to use white-flowered cannabis; the Kshatriya, the warriors, used the red-flowered
plants; the farmers and traders, the Vaishya caste, were to use the
yellow-flowered plant; and the Shudra, servant caste, used plants with dark
flowers.
The
earliest Indian medical text, Sushruta samhita, apparently dating
from pre-Christian times, differentiated three major ways of preparing and
administering Cannabis —BHANG, GANJA, andcharas. Bhang was
a sweet drink prepared from the leaves and flower shoots, which also might be
brewed as a tea. Ganja was the dried flowers, which was
smoked. Charas was a cake compound from the most resinous
parts of the plant; this seems to have been the upper-class favorite.
While bhang, ganja, and charas are still used in India today, the
form of preparation may not be quite the same as the recipes in the Sushruta
samhita.
BETEL
NUT
In
southern parts of Asia, mainly in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, southern China,
and also in East Africa, many people chew Betel Nut (Areca catechu ).
The nut is prepared by wrapping it in a betel pepper leaf (Piper belle )
with a compound of lime (calcium hydroxide or calcium carbonate) and spices.
Chewing this preparation produces mild stimulating effects. At the same time,
the saliva becomes red and the mouth and teeth are stained red. Mouth cancer
may result.
The
ancient Greek traveler and historian Herodotus wrote about betel-nut chewing in
340 b.c. Although its use seems to be declining, an estimated 400 million
persons are still dependent on this substance.
OTHER
NATIVE DRUGS
Students
interested in Ethnopharmacology and cultural practices associated with drug use
will find many fascinating accounts in Asian history. One modern example
involves the consumption of a drink called Kava, which is prepared from the
roots of Piper methysticum. In Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia
this drink is taken for recreational purposes, to calm and sedate the user.
There are
ancient drug-taking practices connected to Fly Agaric, a sometimes deadly
mushroom (Amanita mascaria ) found in several countries. One way to
reduce the toxicity of this mushroom is to feed it to a reindeer and drink the
reindeer urine, which contains intoxicating metabolites of the chemicals found
in the mushroom.
STIMULANTS
Some Asian
countries have suffered epidemics of drug use in connection with legally produced
drug products. An especially widespread epidemic of Amphetamine use started in
Japan during World War II and continued into the 1950s. A second wave of
amphetamine use was reported in the late 1970s. Recently an epidemic of
Methampheta-Mine "(ice)" smoking spread across the Pacific into
Hawaii and other American states after earlier micro-epidemics in Asia.
ALCOHOL
The
account of drug use in Asia would be incomplete without mention of alcoholic
beverages. At present, Asia is the continent with the lowest overall per-capita
consumption of Alcohol. In many Asian countries, alcohol consumption is
prohibited on religious grounds—because of the prohibitions of Islam: the Koran
forbids its use. Nonetheless, even in the most conservative Islamic countries,
there is some alcohol dependence. Saudi Arabia for example, has an Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA) organization and a modern hospital for drug and alcohol
treatment.
In
addition to religious and social restrictions on alcohol consumption, there are
some important biological factors known to be related to genetic variation
within the Asian population. For example, many Asian people have the
"flushing syndrome" in response to alcohol that is associated with
their particular configuration of aldehyde dehydrogenase, an alcohol-metabolizing
enzyme. One prominent sign is that their facial skin becomes flushed. Although
this response might work to discourage alcohol use, and thus protect against
alcohol dependence, many Asian people—especially men—are known to "drink
through" the flushing response to become intoxicated. In fact, South
Korean males suffer from the highest recorded prevalence rates of alcohol abuse
and dependence: An estimated 44 percent of adult men have a history of
currently active or former alcohol abuse and/or dependence. The reasons for
this very high rate are a matter of speculation and should be a topic of
intense study. As evidence of the considerable variation in alcohol problems in
Asia, Taiwan has one of the lowest rates of alcohol abuse and dependence in the
world for both adult men and women. This variation cannot be explained by
differences in research methods, because the same methods have been used in
surveys of Taiwan and South Korea. The difference must involve fundamental
social and cultural differences, or fundamental biological differences in
vulnerability to alcohol-related problems, or a combination.
Alcohol
use is not a new phenomenon in Asia. The drinking of fermented beverages has
been part of Asian cultures since antiquity, as documented in the early
classical literature of China (in the Shujing and the Liji ),
India (in the Susruta samhita ), and other countries.
The Susruta samhita describes various stages of intoxication.
In China, the fall of the Shang Dynasty in the eleventh century b.c. was
attributed to excessive use of alcohol by the emperor and his followers. The
same explanation was given for the fall of later dynasties. In China, different
forms of alcohol have been fermented from various kinds of grain. In other
parts of Asia, alcoholic beverages were based on a large variety of different
substances, including rice in the case of Japanese sake; horse milk in the case
of Kumys, an alcoholic beverage prepared by northern and central Asian nomads;
and toddy-palm sap in the case of arrack prepared in southern India and
Indonesia.
An early
epidemic of drug use combining alcohol with a drug called hanshi can
be traced in the ancient writings of the time of the fall and overthrow of the
Chinese Han Dynasty—a time of rapid changes in society (second and third
century a.d.). The use of hanshi was associated with an
unconventional "bohemian" lifestyle, disregard of social norms,
"disheveled hair," and "incorrect clothing." The hanshi users
were reported to claim that the drug helped open their minds and clarify their
thinking. Although reports of this early epidemic are sketchy, hanshi is
mentioned in several later medieval texts, mainly in relation to remedies that
can be used to help treat its detrimental side effects. At present it is not
clear which chemical compound was present in hanshi.
TOBACCO
Probably
the most widespread twentieth-century epidemic in Asia is Tobacco smoking.
Today, in most Asian countries, local, international, and especially American
tobacco manufacturers are marketing their products aggressively—in part because
of declining demand in North America and in part because of the increasing
economic strength of the Asian countries. One result has been an increase in
the consumption of tobacco products since the 1960s, especially the smoking of
cigarettes.
Tobacco
became a part of Asian culture from the time it was imported by Europeans from
their colonies in the Americas during the 1600s. The "hubbly-bubbly,"
or hookahs, of the Middle East and India were used for smoking tobacco. This
was centuries before modern advertisement techniques were applied by the
tobacco industry. But recently, tobacco-related diseases and deaths are
becoming more prominent in the health statistics of Asia. This toll is
connected directly to an increasing consumption of tobacco products. Part of
the tobacco is imported from the United States and other international
suppliers. Some observers noticed similarities to the situation in the
nineteenth-century, when British traders aggressively fought to keep the
lucrative opium trade from being interrupted. Some thus call for international
agreements concerning tobacco trade, similar to those which helped curb the
opium problem at the beginning of the twentieth century. International support
seems to be needed to help these countries reduce tobacco-related problems.
THE
FUTURE
As
commerce between countries has increased, so has the traffic in drugs. For
centuries Asia has had trading partners for its tea, opium, and Cannabis.
In return it has received shipments of other goods, including pharmaceuticals.
Sometimes these exchanges have been within Asia, as in the early introduction
of opium into China by Arabian traders, and the later commerce in opium between
colonial India and China. Now trading is done on a worldwide scale, whether it
is the legal trade with tea or the illegal traffic of opium. Recently some
countries in Asia have reported an increase in Polydrug use among their younger
population.
Since the
1950s, a number of Asian countries have also experienced a growth of what might
best be called "drug tourism." Travelers, mainly from the Western
Hemisphere, have come to Asia to purchase and consume such drugs as
opium, Cannabis, heroin, and magic mushrooms. For many, it has come
as a surprise that Asian countries respond with harsh penalties, as did
Singapore in 1994, when a man from the Netherlands was hanged for possessing a
large amount of heroin. It must be kept in mind that a long history of harsh
penalties and social sanctions against those who violate social conventions,
including local drug regulations, are part of Asian heritage—as well as the
seemingly exotic custom of drug use.
The writer Teacher & Columnist
8801611579267
http://fourkansarticle.blogspot.com/
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