From the Book - First edition.
Part 1. Opium in antiquity. The mysterious origins of the opium poppy ; Papyruses and poppies ; A journey around the Mediterranean. Part 2. Opium and the birth of modern medicine. Classic cures, ancient addictions ; A little light on the "Dark Ages" ; Opium's golden age ; The monarch of medicine. Part 3. Opium goes global. Marco Polo and the rise of global commerce ; "The spice trade was in reality the drug trade" ; The two most addictive drugs on Earth ; The spice race ; The queen and her company ; A 5,000-year tradition of medicine and moderation
Opening the China market ; Great Britain "invades" China
Trading opium in Canton : "the complicated machinery of evasion". Part 4. The opium wars. Two letters that could have prevented a war ; Five roads to war ; The first drug war. Part 5. The agony and the ecstasy. America enters the opium business ; Generosity and greed ; Americans try growing their own ; Good intentions, tragic results ; The agony and the ecstasy. Part 6. Laws and disorder. America's first failed drug laws ; Drug hysteria and race-based enforcement : the Harry Anslinger story ; The war nobody's ever won ; The $1 trillion question : what do we do now?
