Many books have been analyzed from the perspective of historical origin and supply and demand, and "The Milk of Heaven: A Global History of Opium" is no exception. However, what makes this book stand out is that it puts more ink on the impact of war on the proliferation of drug addiction, which leads people to think more deeply about the relationship between capital, globalization and drug addiction. For Chinese readers, the promotion of war on the proliferation of drug use is a familiar concept. The Opium War, which was initiated by drug proliferation and smuggling, and later exacerbated by unequal treaties, is a familiar history. However, after that, the war promoters of the growth of the opium industry were less concerned by ordinary people. Next, through industrial upgrading and reengineering, the West purifies opium into morphine and heroin, thus occupying the "high-end" of the industrial chain again. This dislocation competition is a common repertoire of globalized narratives, and it also brings the story of the opium industry into a new one. Historical period and context. Scientific and commercial advances have played an important role in this industrial "upgrade", such as advances in medicinal chemistry enabling large-scale industrial purification, the invention of hypodermic injections and simple syringes to make drug preparations easier to use, and the development of global distribution systems. The popularity of large and small-dose paperbacks has made drugs more accessible. In addition to this, war also played a crucial role as a driving force. Unable to endure the mediocre life, the pressure of competition and the frustration of failure, people are often regarded as an important source of drug addiction in modern society. Historical periods, in other words, the supply side may have played a larger role than demand, and this is evident in the war phase as an accelerator of history. From the American Civil War to the two world wars, to the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan War, the cultivation, use and proliferation of drugs, including opium, ushered in a climax time and time again, and then continued to enlarge in the post-war peace years. Leaving a long echo.
When it comes to the pressure of competition, the setbacks of failure, and the physical pain, nothing can bring people more extreme emotional and physical experiences than war. War requires people to perform beyond their normal abilities, and people in war also need excess physical and physical experience. Spiritual comfort, so the demand for drugs that double as a stimulant and a sedative reaches a staged peak. In a sense, the war itself is also the most intensive globalization. People from different regions bring different drug cultures and can gather and communicate, thus realizing the alternative globalization of drugs.
On the one hand, the production gap caused by the war as an extreme scenario needs to be quickly filled. For example, during the "World War I", the United States "outsourced" the production of opium and coca leaves as raw materials for morphine and cocaine to Mexico and Colombia, pushing the edge The country joins the global market for narcotics. After the "World War I", the "joining" of the aircraft, which was the remaining material of the war, made the drug traffickers even more "wings". On the other hand, the collapse of the local order in the third world caused by the war will inevitably lead to a vacuum in the regional supervision of opium-based cultivation and processing.
Such plays were staged more and more frequently during the Cold War. The Vietnam War gave birth to the Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, the long war in the Middle East and Afghanistan gave birth to the Golden Crescent region, and the US-Soviet hegemony in Africa formed a new round of integration of drug networks in East Africa, West Africa and North Africa. The Middle East and Afghan theaters of the war on terror have fueled the Islamic State's drug-growing, drug-making and drug-trafficking businesses.
There are many conspiracy theories that the CIA has emerged in these regional hegemony competitions. The author of "The Milk of Heaven" believes that during the Vietnam War, the CIA condoned and even encouraged the anti-communist forces in Southeast Asia to use the drug business to support the war, and even provided them with various conveniences in drug trafficking.
No matter what the truth is, once the drug network and channels linking the production bases of the third world and the Western market are established, they will not easily withdraw from the historical stage, but will repeatedly stage the drama of "raising the guinea pigs against their masters". Some local anti-government rebellions The terrorists and drug cartels even launched the banner of alternative jihad, and they simply wanted to use drugs to achieve counterattack and revenge for the humiliated and damaged.
Of course, changes on the supply side alone may not be enough to fully explain the rise of drug addiction in the Western world. The demand side is equally important. As a global organism, the fighting on a global scale and the disintegration of the local order in the third world will always trigger shocks in Western society itself. Every major war will always cause trauma to the hearts of the Western world at various hidden or explicit levels. The returnees from the battlefield and the anti-war people in the rear are struggling to survive in a world where meaning is collapsed. The "lost generation" who are acting as agents of disillusionment have become the main force of drugs, and they are looking for the meaning of existence in vaping and acupuncture. , spiritual order and spiritual comfort.
In such a turbulent supply and demand, the acceleration of globalization, the increasingly developed global transportation network, the increasing convenience of sales and payment networks, the facilitation of money laundering, etc., have added various boosts to the global drug industry. The recovery of globalization after the reorganization of the global and regional order is not completely new. It often refurbishes the colonial legacy, war pain and various historical residues of the past, and re-enters the global network after a makeover. and channels, this is especially fully reflected in the ups and downs of the global drug trafficking industry. For example, those global network node cities that have experience in colonies are particularly "smooth" in the process of becoming a global drug hub on the new global express train. .
Or it can be said that the hidden nodes and networks of these alternative globalizations stand the test of history even more than the globalization itself. No matter how the international situation changes, they can always tenaciously and tenaciously connect the supply and demand sides. Arise, witness, satisfy, and foster the folly and hypocrisy of mankind.
On the surface, the proliferation of drug addiction in Western society is due to its underestimation of the reflexive effect of vicious globalization. Then, it is not difficult to find that this may be the meaning of capital globalization: capital can transform everything. Everything is commoditized, and globalization brings everything into the global consumer market, and in the most cost-effective way. This also explains why there is still such a large demand for opium, a raw material that exudes a strong pre-modern flavor, at a time when chemical methods can mass-produce addictive drugs. Just as the cheaply produced links of internationally renowned brands can certainly be broken down, the connection between high-end drug products such as heroin and war-torn drug factories is also a common sight.
What is even more sad is that with the rise of globalization, the proliferation of drugs has spilled over or returned to peripheral countries and regions from core countries and regions, and even if globalization ebbs, alternative globalization of drugs will always find its way. New markets and sources of power, and will be patiently waiting for the next ride.
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