Poppies, Pipes, and People

Opium production and use connote international intrigues, illicit wealth, and social degeneracy to industrialized societies. The experiences and attitudes of those growing and using opiumin poppy-producing areas are not always so dramatic or so negative. For a total of three years between 1965 and 1975, Joseph Westermeyer practiced medicine and studied the function of opiumin Laos, where it is a cash crop, and from 1975 to 1982 he spent an additional six months studying opium addiction in other parts of Asia. His work gives a clear picture of the very different ways opium and its use are regarded in a developing agricultural society.   Opium is a mainstay of the highland economy in Laos. Ease of Transport gives the poppy great advantage over other cash crops, although growers readily abandon its cultivation for work or animal husbandry that offers a higher profit. Opium can sometimes be used without addiction as a recreational intoxicant or folk medicine, but addiction is always a possibility, especially among the growers of the poppy themselves. Opium consumption can initially enhance productivity, but its long-term use is generally debilitating, and the biomedical, psychological, and familial problems commonly associated with drug addiction also occur in Laos. Westermeyer describes heroin as well as opium addiction, includes a chapter on Caucasian addicts, and evaluates indigenous and medical treatments for addiction. He shows how, lacking the cross-cultural perspective offered here, attempts by the United States to restrict opium flow have had little regard for the effect of narcotics policy on other countries, and actually opens the way for heroin use in Laos.   Westermeyer's careful documentation is supplemented by individual vignettes that give a sense of the complex and often unpredictable reality of drug use. HIs analysis will change many stereotypic notions of opiate use in Asia, as it takes into account the myriad views and needs of people living under vastly different circumstances.

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