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History of Heroin

Recreational drug use of cocaine can result in short-term effects of drugs use that can lead to a cycle of dependency and addiction.

The trafficking of heroin is of major concern to governments across the world, but the drug has been a problem for many decades and its forbear - opium - has been smuggled across the world for thousands of years. Early records of history show opium used for spiritual and medicinal reasons, and trade routes were in places through Asia to transport the drug to countries such as Egypt. It wasn’t until the 16th and 17th century that the Western world got into opium in a big way, and trade routes were instigated by Elizabeth I to bring opium from India back to Britain, where it was used for medicinal and relaxation purposes.

In 1729, opium was effectively outlawed in China, except for in medicinal use - this move set in motion the events that lead up the two opium wars of the mid 19th century, when British smuggling of opium into China got to be too much for the Chinese powers to accept or ignore. In the tome leading up to the wars it was realised opium was addictive, the drug was banned altogether in China and morphine and codeine were discovered. By the late 19th century opium was a controlled substance, though still not outlawed - the new discovery of heroin was being marketed as a replacement for morphine and was used in many medicinal procedures.

It wasn’t until 1905 that opium was banned by the US, and it wasn't until later that Britain got on board and prohibited personal possession of the drug.

By this time, however, heroin had entered the scene in a big was and was under close scrutiny by the government, as well as by the scientific and medical communities. In response to an alarming number of addicts around the country, heroin was made illegal in the USA - it was too late to stop the trafficking however, as the routes had already been forged and proved tough to control. The UK banned heroin in the mid 20th century but again, the illicit trade of the drug had already taken a hold, and it has proven very difficult even in recent times for the illegal heroin trade to be controlled.