Despite drastic penalties and continued prohibition of opium until 1860, opium smuggling rose steadily from 200 chests per year under the Yongzheng Emperor to 1,000 under the Qianlong Emperor, 4,000 under the Jiaqing Emperor, and 30,000 under the Daoguang Emperor. [61] The illegal sale of opium became one of the world's most valuable single commodity trades and has been called "the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times". [62] Opium smuggling provided 15 to 20 percent of the British Empire's revenue and simultaneously caused scarcity of silver in China. [63]

Baumler, Alan (2001). Modern China and Opium: A Reader. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472067688. a b c d Zheng, Yangwen (2003). "The Social Life of Opium in China, 1483-1999". Modern Asian Studies. 37 (1): 1–39. doi: 10.1017/S0026749X0300101X. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 3876550. S2CID 146582691. Ms Louise Foxcroft (28 June 2013). The Making of Addiction: The 'Use and Abuse' of Opium in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Ashgate Publishing. pp.66–. ISBN 978-1-4094-7984-0. Simon O'Dochartaigh. "HON Mother & Child Glossary, Meconium". hon.ch. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021 . Retrieved April 4, 2016.Dr Roland Quinault; Dr Ruth Clayton Windscheffel; Mr Roger Swift (28 July 2013). William Gladstone: New Studies and Perspectives. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp.238–. ISBN 978-1-4094-8327-4. a b c M J Brownstein (June 15, 1993). "A brief history of opiates, opioid peptides, and opioid receptors". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 90 (12): 5391–5393. Bibcode: 1993PNAS...90.5391B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.12.5391. PMC 46725. PMID 8390660. If you take a large amount of opium, you could overdose. Call an ambulance straight away by dialling triple zero (000) if you or another person have any of these symptoms (ambulance officers don’t need to involve the police):

Fay, Peter Ward (9 November 2000). The Opium War, 1840-1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-6136-3. a b c d e f g h i j Paul L. Schiff Jr. (2002). "Opium and its alkaloids". American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007 . Retrieved May 8, 2007. Opium is illegal in Australia. Federal and state laws provide penalties for possessing, using, cultivating or selling opium, or driving under its influence. Opium statisticsOpium is the first substance of the diverse group of the opiates. It has been known for a long time, and the first evidence of a poppy culture dates from 5 thousand years by the Sumerians. During the years, opium was used as a sedative and hypnotic, but it was determined to be addictive. 1 Professor Arthur C. Gibson. "The Pernicious Opium Poppy". University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013 . Retrieved February 22, 2014. Some competition came from the newly independent United States, which began to compete in Guangzhou, selling Turkish opium in the 1820s. Portuguese traders also brought opium from the independent Malwa states of western India, although by 1820, the British were able to restrict this trade by charging "pass duty" on the opium when it was forced to pass through Bombay to reach an entrepot. [20] Opium contains two main groups of alkaloids. Phenanthrenes such as morphine, codeine, and thebaine are the main psychoactive constituents. [150] Isoquinolines such as papaverine and noscapine have no significant central nervous system effects. Morphine is the most prevalent and important alkaloid in opium, consisting of 10–16 percent of the total, and is responsible for most of its harmful effects such as lung edema, respiratory difficulties, coma, or cardiac or respiratory collapse. Morphine binds to and activates mu opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord, stomach and intestine. Regular use can lead to drug tolerance or physical dependence. Chronic opium addicts in 1906 China [48] consumed an average of eight grams of opium daily; opium addicts in modern Iran [151] are thought to consume about the same.