0:00:03 > 0:00:07This is the River Clyde in Glasgow.
0:00:09 > 0:00:15250 years ago, this was one of Britain's great trading centres.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18It was the hub of a huge empire
0:00:18 > 0:00:22that stretched from the Caribbean to China.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26An empire founded on trade
0:00:26 > 0:00:30in which simple plants were transformed by human labour
0:00:30 > 0:00:33to become hugely profitable global commodities.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40The trade in sugar...
0:00:40 > 0:00:43tobacco...
0:00:43 > 0:00:45opium...
0:00:45 > 0:00:46and whisky...
0:00:46 > 0:00:51transformed our society, our bodies and our minds.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Over the centuries, we've learned to love these products.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Their smell, their taste, the effect they've had on us.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02They've become increasingly guilty pleasures...
0:01:04 > 0:01:06..which are still with us, still part of us.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Today, millions of us can't do without at least some of them.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15So...
0:01:15 > 0:01:17how did we become so hooked?
0:01:19 > 0:01:22'The answer will take me on a journey across the world...'
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Oh, my God! That's powerful.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30'..and inside our minds and bodies too...' Bye!
0:01:31 > 0:01:33HE SNIFFS
0:01:33 > 0:01:35HE LAUGHS
0:01:35 > 0:01:36Gosh, that's good, isn't it?
0:01:37 > 0:01:41..in the pursuit of pleasure.
0:01:57 > 0:02:03Today, in one form or another, we've all become users of opium.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08Is that a contraction? We're going to wait until that has passed.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10SHE GASPS
0:02:12 > 0:02:14We're going to put in the epidural drugs.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17It's going to take 15 minutes once I have put the medicines in
0:02:17 > 0:02:19for them to start working.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22Opium and its derivative cousins, like morphine,
0:02:22 > 0:02:24brings pain relief to millions of patients,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28and are some of the most widely used drugs on earth.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35I'm going to squirt in the first dose of the good medicine.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40These opium-derived medicines can be vital when lives hit crisis,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44approach their end, or even as they begin.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46What do the contractions feel like now?
0:02:46 > 0:02:48I cannot feel anything.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50- And do you have any pain?- No. - Fantastic.
0:02:50 > 0:02:51I'm OK.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53SHE GIGGLES
0:02:54 > 0:02:59This is the birthing centre at St Thomas's Hospital in London.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Here, anaesthetist Dr Ben Fitzwilliam
0:03:02 > 0:03:05is going take me through the arsenal of opiate-based drugs
0:03:05 > 0:03:07he relies on every day.
0:03:10 > 0:03:11So, Brian, we're very lucky
0:03:11 > 0:03:13to have such a wide range of opioid drugs here.
0:03:13 > 0:03:14We've got morphine,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17perhaps the gold standard by which others are measured,
0:03:17 > 0:03:18because it's so widely used.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21We've got codeine-containing medicine here,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25diamorphine here, which is heroin, which is derived from morphine,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28a very potent opioid
0:03:28 > 0:03:32that we use frequently in spinal and epidural anaesthesia.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35In the hospital setting, we use all these opioids very frequently.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38- Because you can monitor it very carefully in this situation.- Yes.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Because patients ultimately could become addicted.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45And that's the problem.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48While opium-derived drugs like heroin
0:03:48 > 0:03:51have the extraordinary power to ease suffering,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54they also have a powerful dark side.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07'For me, I'm all too aware of how opium can destroy lives.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11'In my home country of Scotland,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14'we are plagued with 50,000 heroin addicts.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19'And at the root of this addiction is a simple plant -
0:04:19 > 0:04:22'the papaver somniferum -
0:04:22 > 0:04:23'opium poppy.'
0:04:30 > 0:04:32The seeds of this modern-day addiction
0:04:32 > 0:04:34were planted way back in the 18th century
0:04:34 > 0:04:38during the height of Britain's trading empire.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47Since then, man has been drawn to opium like moths to a flame.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53It's fuelled the world's largest drug smuggling operation,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56earned vast fortunes,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59triggered war with China,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02inspired medical breakthroughs,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06and cast its spell on high and low society.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Opium is like nothing else on earth.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Both saviour and destroyer.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19This is the story of how Britain unleashed
0:05:19 > 0:05:22the most dangerous of addictions on the world,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26and how the consequences still haunt us today.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37At the heart of this tale is an ordinary plant.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Papaver somniferum.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42The poppy.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47'Opium is contained within the head of the flower.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49'It can be found in fields and hedgerows
0:05:49 > 0:05:52'in all four corners of the world.'
0:05:54 > 0:05:59Its narcotic powers have been exploited for thousands of years.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08There's evidence that papaver somniferum
0:06:08 > 0:06:12may have been cultivated as long ago as 4,000 BC
0:06:12 > 0:06:16in the cradle of civilisation itself - Mesopotamia.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18SNIFFS Mmm....
0:06:20 > 0:06:21In the early written records,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24the Sumerians referred to a plant they called "hul gil" -
0:06:24 > 0:06:28"the plant of joy."
0:06:28 > 0:06:33In ancient Egypt, the Ebers Papyrus, an ancient medical text,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36recommends smearing opium on the nipples of nursing mothers
0:06:36 > 0:06:40to help small children sleep.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42In the Odyssey,
0:06:42 > 0:06:46Homer writes of those grieving for the relatives lost in Troy,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49and how Helen, the beautiful daughter of Zeus,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51pours a drug into the wine,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54"to lull all pain and anger
0:06:54 > 0:06:57"and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow."
0:07:02 > 0:07:06But one country would know nothing but pain and anger,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09and would never forget the sorrow from opium.
0:07:13 > 0:07:14China.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29What do they use the scorpions for?
0:07:29 > 0:07:31To make soup or herbal drink.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Like today's city of Guangzhou,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39ancient China had a sophisticated knowledge
0:07:39 > 0:07:42of weird and wonderful medical cures.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46So what does that do, the sea horse?
0:07:46 > 0:07:51It's good for aphrodisiac, and then you make soup out of it.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Are they very popular, the sea horse?
0:07:53 > 0:07:55Er, yes, if you have that kind of problem, then the...
0:07:55 > 0:07:57HE LAUGHS
0:07:58 > 0:08:03For thousands of years, opium was commonly used as a medicine.
0:08:03 > 0:08:04But it was in the 15th century
0:08:04 > 0:08:10that smoking its mysterious vapours became a source of pleasure.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14Used as an aphrodisiac to escape into blissful sexual oblivion.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20HE SPEAKS CANTONESE
0:08:20 > 0:08:22You can see the carving, all of the carving.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24Oh...that is stunning.
0:08:25 > 0:08:26This is ivory.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29- This is ivory?- Yeah, real ivory.
0:08:29 > 0:08:30Wow.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Beautiful antique opium smoking paraphernalia like this
0:08:38 > 0:08:41gives you an idea of how the Chinese temperament
0:08:41 > 0:08:44was once seduced by the timeless ritual and pleasures of the drug.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49What are these boxes here?
0:08:49 > 0:08:50These are opium box, sir.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53They put, er...opium here.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57- Ah, so that's...- Sometimes they... carving the erotic picture here.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00- Oh, erotic.- Yeah.- Ah...
0:09:00 > 0:09:02- The sexy pictures. - Yeah, sexy pictures, yes.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03Ooh...
0:09:03 > 0:09:05Let me see if I have my glasses.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08- This is not an erotic... - Ah, this is not a sexy picture.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10- HE LAUGHS - Well, I won't waste my time on it, then.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Yet with China's age came wisdom.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18By the late 18th century,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21they realised, for all opium's benefits,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23it was too addictive to be trifled with.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30In 1729, in the early days of British trade with China,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34the Emperor Yongzheng banned the sale,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37smoking and all trade in opium.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44This would soon prove to be a huge problem for the British,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48because we were quickly developing our own more genteel addiction.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56First thing...
0:09:56 > 0:09:59warm all the teawares up, and all the tea cups.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Then we can add the tea leaves,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07with a small bamboo stick.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Higher and higher...
0:10:13 > 0:10:15Is the ritual very important?
0:10:15 > 0:10:19People say it is like a kind of meditation,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21um...maybe it's kind of relaxing.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26- Thank you.- You're welcome.
0:10:27 > 0:10:28Hope you like it.
0:10:28 > 0:10:29Kan bei.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Kan bei. Thank you.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33Tea -
0:10:33 > 0:10:35the cup that cheers, but does not inebriate.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42By the end of the 18th century, the British were already leaders
0:10:42 > 0:10:45in the consumption of a nice cup of char,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49importing six million pounds of tea from China a year.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Now, tea was one of those small daily luxuries
0:10:52 > 0:10:54which the British absolutely counted on,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57and Guangzhou, back then known as Canton,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01was the only place foreign traders could buy tea in China.
0:11:03 > 0:11:04Mmm...
0:11:04 > 0:11:05That's so good.
0:11:05 > 0:11:06Thank you.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10The problem was,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12over a 50-year period,
0:11:12 > 0:11:17we paid the Chinese £27 million in silver bullion,
0:11:17 > 0:11:22the only currency they would accept in exchange for tea.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25During that same period, the Brits managed to sell
0:11:25 > 0:11:29no more than £9 million worth of goods to the Chinese.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Our love of tea was sucking the silver
0:11:34 > 0:11:36out of the British imperial economy.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Urgent action was needed.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45So in 1793, with the blessing of His Majesty's Government,
0:11:45 > 0:11:47a trade delegation headed to Peking,
0:11:47 > 0:11:52and presented the 83-year-old emperor, Qianlong,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55with our finest manufactured goods.
0:11:55 > 0:11:56Wedgwood pottery.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Scientific instruments.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Woollen fabrics.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Matches of sulphur.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Even French hot air balloons.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15The Chinese rejected them all.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21This is what the emperor said in a letter to King George III.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23"As your ambassador could see for himself,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27"we possess all things, and of the highest quality.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31"I set no value on strange and useless objects,
0:12:31 > 0:12:36"and have no use of your country's manufactures."
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Basically, as far as the Chinese were concerned,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Britain's fledgling industrial revolution
0:12:42 > 0:12:47had produced noting but a whole load of undesirable tat.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54With tea rapidly becoming unaffordable,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57it was now that Britain's recent conquest of Indian Bengal
0:12:57 > 0:12:58presented a solution.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04One of the world's finest sources of opium.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14With Britain spiralling into debt, something had to give,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18and that something was respect for China's trade ban on opium.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26I'm close to the mouth of the River Pearl delta,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30not far from Canton.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35I'm meeting Professor John Carroll,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38who's going to explain how, in the early 19th century,
0:13:38 > 0:13:43the British East India Company began what would become the largest
0:13:43 > 0:13:47and most disgraceful drug-smuggling operation in history.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53Let's open up this map and give you a better sense of the big picture,
0:13:53 > 0:13:54and then the local picture as well.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57Take some coins here.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59Put Britain here,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02put India here,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05and then we'll put south China here.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07The British realised that, because there was so much opium
0:14:07 > 0:14:10produced right here on the east side of India,
0:14:10 > 0:14:15that selling opium, or smuggling opium, to China made sense.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17- So here they are, they're in the delta.- Yes, right.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19- And it's highly illegal. - Right, right.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22In 1729, it becomes illegal, but how do they get round it?
0:14:22 > 0:14:24The product was sold to what were called country traders,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28or private traders, who would then carry it into China.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30- These were private British traders. - Yes, yes.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32What would happen is the ships would come from India,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35they would come to the south China coast.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38It was also important to keep in mind, though, that Canton,
0:14:38 > 0:14:43today's Guangzhou, is a coastal area, lots of inlets and so on,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45so it wasn't at all difficult
0:14:45 > 0:14:49for the British to bring in the opium from India.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52They would then transfer the goods right here along the coast
0:14:52 > 0:14:56to smaller boats, sometimes known as scrambling dragons or fast crabs.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59- Scrambling dragons and fast crabs? - Fast crabs, yes.
0:14:59 > 0:15:00They were smaller boats
0:15:00 > 0:15:03that could make it up the coast much, much more easily.
0:15:03 > 0:15:04And there was always somebody there
0:15:04 > 0:15:07who was willing to help them bring in the drugs.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12I would say that trade, whether it's illegal or legal,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15- requires a confluence of mutual interests.- Right.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18And there were people at all levels of Chinese society throughout China.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20- So there's a lot of pragmatism. - Yeah.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22A lot of pragmatism on all sides here.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Nobody made any effort to hide this.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28but, I mean, it seems to me that, from an economic perspective,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31this all made perfect sense.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35Opium is the one good that the British had to offer the Chinese
0:15:35 > 0:15:37that would make as much money as it did.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44Opium shipments were initially capped at 5,000 chests per year
0:15:44 > 0:15:46to keep the prices high.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Tea and opium were now locked together
0:15:49 > 0:15:51in an intimate, economic embrace.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05I spent most of my early life
0:16:05 > 0:16:09avoiding contact with opiates in any form.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13It was only back in the eighties on a theatrical tour of India
0:16:13 > 0:16:17that I decided perhaps it was time, in a spirit of experimentation,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20to try opium for myself.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26As I was in India, I decided to embrace the culture
0:16:26 > 0:16:30and I decided to take myself to an opium den.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33And there was a very strict ritual about it.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36The pipe was very much held directly over the lamp,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38unlike the Chinese style, which held it to the side,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41but the Indians held it directly over the lamp like that.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44And it would heat, and you would take it in five breaths.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48- So you went one, two, three, four... - INHALES QUICKLY
0:16:48 > 0:16:53- ..and then on the fifth, you went... - INHALES DEEPLY
0:16:53 > 0:16:54You held it...
0:16:55 > 0:16:57..and then you released,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59and then you passed it to the next person.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03The wallah would tease the opium with these long, thin needles,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06tease it and then wind it into a tiny ball,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10and then he would bring it, hold it over the flame into the bowl.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Also,
0:17:12 > 0:17:17there was a guy who used to work your feet, he would massage you.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19So you'd suddenly find this guy at the end of the bench
0:17:19 > 0:17:23where you were lying, he would suddenly start working on your feet.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25But the whole thing was a real ritual,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27and you felt you were taking part in a ritual.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32I really felt very, erm... very at one with the world.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36I suppose I shouldn't be saying this on television,
0:17:36 > 0:17:37but it was a rather good feeling.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45GIRLS SHOUT
0:17:45 > 0:17:47And I'm not the only Scot in China
0:17:47 > 0:17:50who's been interested in the delights of opium.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55In 1832, two Scotsmen,
0:17:55 > 0:17:59while sampling the pleasures of a Chinese brothel, met.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Far from home, these two kindred spirits hit it off.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11And they hatched a plan.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19The men in question were James Matheson and William Jardine.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21The company they formed, Jardine Matheson,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26was set to change Britain's fledgling trade in opium forever.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32In a rare, patriotic, but rather perverse moment,
0:18:32 > 0:18:37they decided to choose the saltire as their logo.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Sentiment would play no further part in their business venture.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48Drugs, after all, are about cold hard cash.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Up until this point, under British law,
0:18:59 > 0:19:04only the British East India Company were to allowed to trade with China.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09But in 1833, just one year after Jardine Matheson's union,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11the trading monopoly was scrapped.
0:19:11 > 0:19:17Adventurers and opportunists flooded to Canton like bees to a honey pot.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Yet Jardine and Matheson were ahead of the game.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26The Scots had already set up shop outside the main city walls
0:19:26 > 0:19:30in an area of Canton known as the Thirteen Factories.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35This was where one addiction was traded for another.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Tea for opium.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43So, Professor Yang, this is the area where it all happened.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45This is where the famous Thirteen Factories were.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13Foreign traders were restricted
0:20:13 > 0:20:17to dealing only with special traders known as Ko Hong.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Both sides were in on the lucrative opium racket.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28So how rich were people like these traders becoming?
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Jardine Matheson.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33How rich? SPEAKS MANDARIN
0:20:33 > 0:20:35- Very rich.- Very rich, yes. HE LAUGHS
0:20:52 > 0:20:54To entice more users,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Jardine Matheson even stooped to employing a priest
0:20:58 > 0:21:02to distribute small opium packets with chapters of the Bible.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05GULPING
0:21:06 > 0:21:10By 1836, the number of opium chests arriving from India
0:21:10 > 0:21:14had shot up sixfold to 30,000 a year.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Jardine Matheson was responsible for about a quarter.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22That's 500 metric tonnes of contraband.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24China's smokers smoked for pleasure.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28What could be wrong with supplying their growing demand?
0:21:32 > 0:21:34The officially forbidden trade
0:21:34 > 0:21:37was now the largest international commerce
0:21:37 > 0:21:40in any single commodity anywhere in the world.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54The reaction wasn't long in coming.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59In 1839, Emperor Daoguang declared a war on drugs.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04And here in Humen, at the mouth of the River Pearl,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08they have built an opium war museum,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11which tells quite a remarkable story.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22So these are the Thirteen Factories.
0:22:22 > 0:22:23It's how it all started.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29The emperor ordered a series of drug raids on the western traders.
0:22:31 > 0:22:32Here are our two heroes,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36Mr William Jardine and Mr James Matheson,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39described as "opium smugglers."
0:22:39 > 0:22:40Neat.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48The Chinese army locked the British traders in the Thirteen Factories,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50and forced them to surrender.
0:22:52 > 0:22:5542,000 opium pipes,
0:22:55 > 0:22:57and 20,000 chests of opium,
0:22:57 > 0:23:02with a street value of £2 million sterling were seized.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11All of these pictures denote the scale of the suffering
0:23:11 > 0:23:17that people went through as a result of the overindulgence in opium.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22There's a mother crying with her child there,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26and a slightly emaciated figure who looks really quite far gone.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34The confiscated opium was smashed up and dumped into massive pits.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39And on the 3rd of June, it was chemically burnt by adding lime.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Eventually, it was washed out to sea.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Apparently, the stink was appalling.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Outraged, William Jardine headed to London.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57He was satirised at the time as, "A Scotsman, one McDruggy,
0:23:57 > 0:24:02"fresh from Canton, with a million from opium in each pocket,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07"denouncing corruption and bellowing, 'Free trade.' "
0:24:07 > 0:24:09It didn't take much persuasion for the British Government
0:24:09 > 0:24:10to send the Royal Navy.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14After all, opium and tea were now responsible
0:24:14 > 0:24:18for one-sixth of the British Empire's income.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22ALL CHATTER IN CHINESE
0:24:24 > 0:24:26It was time to teach the Chinese aggressors
0:24:26 > 0:24:31a friendly lesson in international cooperation...
0:24:31 > 0:24:33at gunpoint, if need be.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40In June, 1840, the fleet arrived,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43not far from the museum here in Humen...
0:24:45 > 0:24:50..16 warships with 27 transports, carrying 4,000 men,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52not forgetting the Nemesis,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55an iron-clad steamer,
0:24:55 > 0:24:57armed with the first weapon of mass destruction -
0:24:57 > 0:25:03a Congreve rocket launcher which dispatched exploding warheads.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09The Chinese had made preparations too.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14They'd spent years reinforcing the forts that guarded the mouth of the Pearl River
0:25:14 > 0:25:15with batteries of cannon.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21They gave the forts imposing names as well -
0:25:21 > 0:25:23the Fort of Eternal Peace,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27the Fort of Consolidated Security,
0:25:27 > 0:25:33the Forts of Suppressing, Overawing and Quelling Those From Afar.
0:25:37 > 0:25:38Big names,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41but the Chinese had no modern weaponry at all,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45just beautifully-crafted cannons on immovable stands.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51Now, I've managed to destroy most of the Royal Navy,
0:25:51 > 0:25:56yet, in reality, sadly, in 1840, it couldn't have been more different.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03The Chinese defences and their armada of war junks
0:26:03 > 0:26:05were blown away by the British gunboats
0:26:05 > 0:26:07in just five and a half hours.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09GUNS FIRE
0:26:12 > 0:26:14And that was just the beginning.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Over the next two years, the British headed north,
0:26:17 > 0:26:20up the coast towards Shanghai.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24With Chinese troops doped up to their eyes,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28the sheer firepower of the British was overwhelming.
0:26:29 > 0:26:30It was slaughter.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41The might of the Chinese Empire and the army that served it
0:26:41 > 0:26:42was on her knees.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52On the 29th of August, 1842, near the town of Nanking,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56on board the HMS Cornwall, gunboat diplomacy prevailed.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59The Chinese signed what historians would later call
0:26:59 > 0:27:02"the most unequal treaty".
0:27:04 > 0:27:07They agreed to open five ports to foreign trade,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10pay a crippling 21 million
0:27:10 > 0:27:12in silver dollars to the British government...
0:27:14 > 0:27:17..compensation for loss of opium earnings with interest,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20and, of course, the cost of the war.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25And the prize of the Treaty of Nanking?
0:27:27 > 0:27:28Hong Kong Island.
0:27:38 > 0:27:39Gifted to the British,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41this was the perfect hub for Her Majesty's merchants
0:27:41 > 0:27:45to upscale the trade in opium with China.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50The floodgates were open.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55Hong Kong Island grew into one of the greatest commercial centres of all time,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59and all this blossomed...
0:27:59 > 0:28:00from a cloud of opium smoke.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Even to this day, Jardine Matheson,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08now a multi-million pound multinational,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10is based here in the heart of city.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Its founders became the richest men in Scotland.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19The Times would later describe the Opium War
0:28:19 > 0:28:23as the most disgraceful war in our history.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26The British lost 69 men
0:28:26 > 0:28:32and killed between 20,000 and 25,000 Chinese.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48While the Chinese were counting the cost of opium addiction,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51we were counting the Emperor's silver,
0:28:51 > 0:28:56sent back to the UK and publicly wheeled into the Bank of England.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07At the time of the Opium Wars,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10the British were culpably ignorant of the havoc
0:29:10 > 0:29:13they were creating in the brains of the Chinese people.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18Today, modern science has given us a far deeper understanding
0:29:18 > 0:29:19of the power of opium.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23'I'm meeting Professor David Nutt,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26'former drugs advisor to the government.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29'He knows more than most about the dual personality of opium
0:29:29 > 0:29:32'and how its pain-relieving qualities are closely tied
0:29:32 > 0:29:34'to its addictive pleasure.'
0:29:37 > 0:29:39Now, here's a brain.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42So this is the brain stem and the spinal cord.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46You tread on a nail and the pain fibres send messages up to here.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49This is the part of the brain called the thalamus.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51And that's where pain is regulated.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55What opium does is it basically puts a block there
0:29:55 > 0:29:58to stop those pain fibres getting into the brain.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00But the suffering from pain
0:30:00 > 0:30:02comes more from this frontal part of the brain,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04and this is the part of the brain
0:30:04 > 0:30:07which engages you in all your emotional activities.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11We also now know that opium does dampen down that part of the brain,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14and part of that is why it's pleasurable,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17because it dampens down other miseries in your life.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19So, you know, you've got to pay tax
0:30:19 > 0:30:22or you've got to sort out your divorce, etc.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26So the actual pain of a tack in your foot
0:30:26 > 0:30:30is equal to the tax that you also have to pay.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33- Yes, in terms of your reaction to it, absolutely.- Really?
0:30:33 > 0:30:37It's all dealt with in this part of the brain called the anterior cingulate.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39So opium is a plant chemical,
0:30:39 > 0:30:45which mimics a natural hormone in the brain we call endorphins.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49And endorphins are there to deal with pain,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51and, possibly, to give pleasure.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55But what opium does is it does what the natural substance does
0:30:55 > 0:30:57but much better.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59So it really is good at taking away pain,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02which is why we use it as a painkiller, but, also,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05it can give more pleasure than the natural substance.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08So we sometimes say it hijacks the natural system
0:31:08 > 0:31:13so that the person then doesn't feel normal responsiveness
0:31:13 > 0:31:14unless they're taking opium.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16So that's why they become dependant on it.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23It's this ability of opium to aggressively barge in,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25push the natural endorphins aside,
0:31:25 > 0:31:31and kidnap our pain and pleasure receptors that make it so dangerous.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35The euphoric high that comes with taking opium
0:31:35 > 0:31:37is like nothing our brain has experienced before.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40And that makes it irresistible.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52By the early 19th century,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56opium's dark spell wasn't just confined to the East.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58In Britain, the drug's delights
0:31:58 > 0:32:01were beginning to seduce the upper echelons of society.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Then, on the 18th of August, 1821,
0:32:07 > 0:32:11subscribers to the London Magazine opened the latest edition
0:32:11 > 0:32:13to discover an article entitled
0:32:13 > 0:32:16the Confessions Of An English Opium-Eater.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23Doubtless, they read it with a nice cup of tea imported from China.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25The article was anonymous.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27In his article, which I have here,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31the author asserted that not only was he an English opium-eater,
0:32:31 > 0:32:32but he was also one of many.
0:32:32 > 0:32:37He said he'd conducted an informal survey with London chemists,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40who told him that the number of amateur opium-eaters
0:32:40 > 0:32:41was actually immense.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46Within a few months, the author of this popular and outrageous text
0:32:46 > 0:32:47unmasked himself.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49He was...
0:32:49 > 0:32:51Thomas De Quincey,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55and he wrote it sitting up there in that very window.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01An impoverished English journalist, De Quincey was in his mid-30s.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03As the article revealed, like everyone in Britain,
0:33:03 > 0:33:07he didn't eat his opium at all - he drank it,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10in the form of a medicine known as laudanum.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15De Quincy recalls his first experience of opium
0:33:15 > 0:33:18as an undergraduate at Oxford suffering from toothache.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25"In an hour, oh! Heavens! What a revulsion!
0:33:25 > 0:33:28"What a resurrection from the lower depths of the inner spirit!
0:33:28 > 0:33:31"What an apocalypse of the world within me.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34"That my pains had vanished was now a trifle in my eyes.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36"This negative effect was swallowed up
0:33:36 > 0:33:41"in the abyss of divine enjoyment thus suddenly revealed.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44"Here was a panacea for all human woes.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48"Here is the secret of happiness."
0:33:54 > 0:33:58Confessions Of An Opium-Eater became a huge hit. Why?
0:33:58 > 0:34:02Because De Quincey was one of the first to describe both beautifully and seductively
0:34:02 > 0:34:06the effects of the drug on the mind.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10He used to visit the opera here in Covent Garden while under the influence.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16He tells us how opium rendered the choruses sublime,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19losing his sense of the passage of time.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22OPERATIC SINGING
0:34:26 > 0:34:31Byron, Shelly, Keats.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Because of its effect on the creative mind,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37opium soon became the drug of choice for many a writer.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44Even De Quincey talks of fantastic imagery of the brain -
0:34:44 > 0:34:48cities and temples beyond the splendours of Babylon.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53But it was Samuel Taylor Coleridge that truly captured in words
0:34:53 > 0:34:56the exotic world that opium painted on the mind.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
0:35:02 > 0:35:06"A stately pleasure-dome decree
0:35:06 > 0:35:08"Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
0:35:08 > 0:35:11"Through caverns measureless to man
0:35:11 > 0:35:13"Down to a sunless sea.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17"So twice five miles of fertile ground
0:35:17 > 0:35:20"With walls and towers girdled round
0:35:21 > 0:35:24"Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
0:35:24 > 0:35:27"Through wood and dale the sacred river ran
0:35:27 > 0:35:30"Then reached the caverns measureless to man
0:35:30 > 0:35:33"And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean
0:35:33 > 0:35:37"And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
0:35:37 > 0:35:41"Ancestral voices prophesying war!
0:35:44 > 0:35:46"A damsel with a dulcimer
0:35:46 > 0:35:48"In a vision once I saw
0:35:48 > 0:35:49"It was an Abyssinian maid,
0:35:49 > 0:35:51"On her dulcimer she played,
0:35:51 > 0:35:52"Singing of Mount Abora.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54"Could I revive within me
0:35:54 > 0:35:55"Her symphony and song
0:35:55 > 0:35:57"To such a deep delight 'twould win me
0:35:57 > 0:35:59"That with music loud and long
0:35:59 > 0:36:02"I would build that dome in air
0:36:02 > 0:36:04"That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
0:36:04 > 0:36:07"And all who heard them should see them there,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11"And all should cry, Beware! Beware!"
0:36:13 > 0:36:17While writers and poets were exploring the creative delights of opium,
0:36:17 > 0:36:22scientists were working to improve its medical potency.
0:36:22 > 0:36:27They'd recently isolated opium's most active chemical -
0:36:27 > 0:36:28morphine.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34But it wasn't until 1851, here in Edinburgh,
0:36:34 > 0:36:36that a brilliant Scottish invention
0:36:36 > 0:36:39would unleash morphine's medical potential.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47This in turn would revolutionise medicine
0:36:47 > 0:36:50and our addiction to the pleasures of opium.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55The invention was the hypodermic syringe.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Its creator? Scottish doctor Alexander Wood.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06'And here at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11'they hold two of Wood's original syringes.'
0:37:13 > 0:37:15The one on the right is the one
0:37:15 > 0:37:18that was used for the first injection, as far as we know.
0:37:18 > 0:37:19- This one here.- Yeah.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21How did the syringe work?
0:37:21 > 0:37:25Well, basically, what you've got is a cotton wool wad inside there,
0:37:25 > 0:37:29- it's a forward and backward operation, much like a modern one, really.- Right.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31And you can see there is a little screw there.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35That needle screws onto the front end of the syringe there
0:37:35 > 0:37:37- and then you've got a little... - Plunger.
0:37:37 > 0:37:38You've got a little plunger.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40- So...- Very delicate.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42Yeah, it's very, very delicate.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44The needle was Woods' innovation?
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Attempts had been made to introduce things intravenously
0:37:47 > 0:37:52for a very long time by pushing it through the skin using a lance,
0:37:52 > 0:37:57but it's the marrying, really, of the needle and the syringe unit itself.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01He recognised that you could use that locally as well as generally.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04So it went into the bloodstream.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Yeah. That marriage between use of morphine
0:38:07 > 0:38:09and the syringe was quite powerful.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Morphine was around ten times more potent than raw opium,
0:38:17 > 0:38:19and, with Woods' syringe,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23it made it possible to deliver huge quantities of the drug to the brain.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27With the belief that injecting morphine removed its habit-forming properties,
0:38:27 > 0:38:32by the 1860s, its use by doctors swept the country.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Quick to teach their patients how to inject themselves,
0:38:38 > 0:38:43it wasn't long before the upper classes in Paris and London
0:38:43 > 0:38:45turned to morphine for pleasure.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50- Mike?- Brian.- Hi. How are you?
0:38:50 > 0:38:52- Good, thanks.- Good to see you.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55- Ah! Oh, here we are. High tea, how lovely.- Yeah.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00'Author Mike Jay is a leading expert in 19th-century high society.'
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I gather that, going to the opera,
0:39:06 > 0:39:09it was a fairly common habit to take some opium
0:39:09 > 0:39:12in order to enhance the whole experience, is that right?
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Yes, it was quite a common sight for women, particularly,
0:39:15 > 0:39:17at the opera and theatre.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21So is this something they would do, like have a cigarette outside nowadays,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23they would go off in a quiet corner somewhere?
0:39:23 > 0:39:26Or was it something they did before they actually went to the opera?
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Of course, women in those days weren't allowed to smoke cigarettes
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and they weren't allowed to drink...
0:39:33 > 0:39:35- Oh!- ..so it was their only option in public.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39- It would be something they'd do discreetly under the table.- Right.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44- So ladies would take out their accoutrements...- That's right.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47I mean, here's a really beautiful example you can see.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49A lovely silver engraved case.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52- And inside here you've got... - My goodness.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56That's the vial that would have contained the morphine.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01There's the syringe and plunger and a couple of little needles here.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04- That's rather beautiful, isn't it? - Yeah, it's gorgeous, isn't it?
0:40:04 > 0:40:06This kind of kit, obviously, was expensive,
0:40:06 > 0:40:09and people used it as a kind of display of wealth.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12- That's a hell of a long needle. - It is, isn't it?
0:40:12 > 0:40:14How far in would that go?
0:40:14 > 0:40:16It was all intramuscular injection,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19so there was no searching for a vein or anything.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Once you had it set up like that,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24you could simply pop it into your leg under the table
0:40:24 > 0:40:27- and nobody would notice.- Gosh.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47While the upper crust were feeling even more elevated than normal,
0:40:47 > 0:40:52the working class were experiencing their own opium boon.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55Working mothers, factory and farm workers,
0:40:55 > 0:40:59even soldiers, were switching from gin, rum
0:40:59 > 0:41:04and home-distilled spirits to opium in a vast array of preparations.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10And Mike's taken me to a highly-secure vault,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13a secret location, where they still hold everything
0:41:13 > 0:41:17from opium drinks and pills to sweets -
0:41:17 > 0:41:20all now Class A contraband.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24This is actually a lump of opium.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29- That was...- You're kidding me. This is?- Yes.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31That's a heck of a big poppy, isn't it?
0:41:32 > 0:41:35'He's going to reveal the shocking truth
0:41:35 > 0:41:40'about just how widely spread opium's use had become
0:41:40 > 0:41:42'by the mid-1850s.'
0:41:42 > 0:41:44Here's opium in the form of sweets.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47They're like a kind of sugary cough sweet.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Opiate confectionery.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51There's a huge range of opium preparations made,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54particularly for children, like these ones here.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57This is Mrs Winslow's Syrup
0:41:57 > 0:41:59and the Atkinson's Infants' Preservative.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04- Infants' Preservative?- Yeah, I mean, think of it as the Calpol of its day.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07It was very effective against coughs,
0:42:07 > 0:42:09that's what it was mostly marketed for,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13but also people would dose up their children and, you know,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15make them more docile and quieter.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18There were frequent scandals when childminders,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21who had enormous numbers of screaming children to deal with,
0:42:21 > 0:42:23some of them, if they were unscrupulous,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26would simply dose all the kids up with opium and keep them asleep all day.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28This is the poster for what we have here,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31which is Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34and you can see this is specifically for children teething.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38- Ah. There's suitably stoned children dealing with their teething troubles.- That's right.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40It's packaged for children,
0:42:40 > 0:42:44but it's the same as the laudanum that the men would take after a day's work. It's the same.
0:42:44 > 0:42:50It seems now outrageous, this stuff, but then it was perfectly normal.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57In one of Thomas De Quincey's informal surveys,
0:42:57 > 0:43:02he was told by a local chemist in the cotton spinning area of Lancashire
0:43:02 > 0:43:05that, on a Saturday night, the demand for opium was immense.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10Laudanum was cheaper than alcohol,
0:43:10 > 0:43:15cheap enough for the lowest paid worker to escape their harsh, mundane lives.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21This book is by the 19th-century novelist Charles Kinsley,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24and it takes us into the world of working folk.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27And I've just found this very telling verse
0:43:27 > 0:43:31which reveals just how common opium use was.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35"Yoo goo into druggist's shop o' market-day, into Cambridge,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38"and you'll see the little boxes, doozens and doozens,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40"a'ready on the counter. Oh, ho-ho!
0:43:40 > 0:43:44"Well, it keeps women-folk quiet, it do,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46"and it's mortal good against pains.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48"But what is it?
0:43:48 > 0:43:51"Opium, bor' alive, opium."
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Between 1825 and 1850,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03imports of opium to Britain rose 400%.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07It was sold as a treatment for almost every medical ailment,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10but, above all, for pleasure.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15And in the 1870s, the first discreet clinics appeared
0:44:15 > 0:44:17for so-called morphinomaniacs -
0:44:17 > 0:44:21users who were unable to give up the faster, more intense high
0:44:21 > 0:44:23from injecting morphine.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26The bitter irony was,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29the more that people took the drug in the pursuit of pleasure,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33the more it was killing their naturally ability to feel it -
0:44:33 > 0:44:38something that today's science is only just starting to unravel.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47I've come to the University of Dundee.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50Here, a pioneering study
0:44:50 > 0:44:53is unlocking the secrets of what causes addiction.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58So where do I go?
0:44:58 > 0:45:00'They're looking deep inside the brains of opiate addicts
0:45:00 > 0:45:02'and comparing them with non-addicts,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05'which is where I'm helping out.'
0:45:05 > 0:45:07Bye.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11'While in the MRI scanner, participants play a simple game
0:45:11 > 0:45:15'to test feelings of pleasure through reward.'
0:45:16 > 0:45:19- Are you OK there, Brian? - Yes, I'm fine.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Okeydoke. It's just about to start, just in ten seconds.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27'The aim is to understand how opiate drugs
0:45:27 > 0:45:29'take over the brains of addicts
0:45:29 > 0:45:33'and their ability to experience the normal pleasures of everyday life.'
0:45:35 > 0:45:37If you wake up in the morning
0:45:37 > 0:45:42and the sky is blue, which is usually not very common in Dundee...
0:45:42 > 0:45:43you feel good about yourself
0:45:43 > 0:45:47and you feel good about the fact that you had a good breakfast.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51Those are natural rewards, those are the bits and pieces that keep us going.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56Now, imagine the drugs hijacking that reward system.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Remarkably, the study is already revealing
0:46:00 > 0:46:03that, even when addicts are clean,
0:46:03 > 0:46:08this stranglehold over the brain's pleasure system remains in place.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10These are the areas of the brain where,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13if you have a natural reward or you win something
0:46:13 > 0:46:16or you feel good about yourself, it tends to light up.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18What you notice straightaway
0:46:18 > 0:46:21is that people with a history of substance misuse
0:46:21 > 0:46:25tend to have a slightly less active...
0:46:25 > 0:46:26Considerably less.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30Considerably less. What that is telling us
0:46:30 > 0:46:34is they are not able to appreciate or experience natural rewards.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38The brains of addicts are so drastically rewired
0:46:38 > 0:46:41that it's difficult for them to experience pleasure
0:46:41 > 0:46:46without opiate drugs. This is why addiction is a lifelong problem.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51And back in late 19th-century Britain, the price of pleasure
0:46:51 > 0:46:55from opium's dark side was becoming a serious public concern.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03It was then that the search began for a miracle drug
0:47:03 > 0:47:07that had all the pain-killing properties of morphine and opium,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09but without the addiction.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13In 1874, at St Mary's Hospital, London,
0:47:13 > 0:47:18chemist Alder Wright attempted to modify morphine.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23His experiment was simple.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28He took morphine and added acetic acid.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34This liquid he then heated to 85 degrees for several hours.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39Next, he added ether to dissolve whatever he had made.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45After a few more chemical steps...
0:47:47 > 0:47:49..which we can't reveal here,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53a substance precipitated out as flakes.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Yet Wright didn't realise the importance of what he had made
0:47:58 > 0:47:59because of his testing methods.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Wright gave some of this stuff to his dog to test it out
0:48:07 > 0:48:11and he must have given the dog far too much
0:48:11 > 0:48:15because the dog became very sick and vomited
0:48:15 > 0:48:17and so Wright sort of thought, "Well..."
0:48:17 > 0:48:20Was it the favourite family dog?
0:48:20 > 0:48:24That I don't know, but the dog sure got sick.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27And so he wrote up the experiment
0:48:27 > 0:48:30but he put the substance aside and didn't study it again.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32However, some 15 or so years later,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35a chemist working from a German company
0:48:35 > 0:48:37called Farbenfabriken Friedrich Bayer
0:48:37 > 0:48:41discovered Wright's description of his synthesis
0:48:41 > 0:48:44in the published literature and they tried it for themselves.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48So, as many good 19th-century chemists did...
0:48:50 > 0:48:52..they tasted it to see what it did.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57And one of them said that it made him feel absolutely wonderful
0:48:57 > 0:48:59and they were going to call it wunderlich,
0:48:59 > 0:49:01the German for "wonderful".
0:49:01 > 0:49:04But another of his colleagues who had taken it said,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07"This makes me feel heroisch,"
0:49:07 > 0:49:09"heroic",
0:49:09 > 0:49:11and so they called it heroin.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Ha!
0:49:16 > 0:49:18And that's what we still call it today.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21- Oh, my goodness.- And if you look at some of the old formulations,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25here are some tablets that Bayer issued,
0:49:25 > 0:49:27and this would have been used to relieve pain,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30but it was also used to treat cough.
0:49:30 > 0:49:36This is an advert for stuff they called Glykeron or Glyco-Heroin.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40The adult dose, it says, is one teaspoonful every two hours.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44For children of ten years or more, the dose is from one-quarter
0:49:44 > 0:49:46to one-half of a teaspoonful.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50And for children of three years or more, five to ten drops.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53So you can see that this was being marketed
0:49:53 > 0:49:56for a wide range of individuals, young and old.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Bayer stated the new drug,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04which was five times more potent than morphine,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07had been cleared of all addictive properties.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12Whether for medical or recreation use,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15heroin medicines were sold in millions over the counter
0:50:15 > 0:50:18with little regulation in the East or West.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23And while heroin was thought to be safe,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26one group of Western crusaders started to raise alarm bells
0:50:26 > 0:50:29about the addictive nature of opium.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32The Christian missionaries
0:50:32 > 0:50:35had documented the first real research from China,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38a country the British were now flooding
0:50:38 > 0:50:41with over 100,000 chests of opium a year.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47The World Missionary Conference, gathered here in Edinburgh in 1910,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51lobbied for the worldwide restriction of the drug.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56What kind of evidence were the missionaries bringing back?
0:50:56 > 0:50:59The missionaries were very instrumental
0:50:59 > 0:51:03in bringing back information, detailed information,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07about addiction and the destructive effects of addiction.
0:51:07 > 0:51:12For example, a man with three wives
0:51:12 > 0:51:16could sell both wives and children in order to get his hands on opium.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18- Selling his wife for opium?- Yes.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22Selling his entire house. So it's bringing down families.
0:51:22 > 0:51:28It's destroying the fabric, the very fabric, of Chinese society.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31And it went right down through society, it percolated all the way down...?
0:51:31 > 0:51:34Yes, from the elite to... We have a saying -
0:51:34 > 0:51:37"From the Emperor's dowager to the coolies on the street,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39"from women to children."
0:51:39 > 0:51:45Historians estimate about 13 to 14 million of Chinese people
0:51:45 > 0:51:47were smoking, were addicted, to opium.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49In fact, China was dying.
0:51:49 > 0:51:54So how did the missionaries treat the addicts in China?
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Many of them carried morphine pills,
0:51:57 > 0:52:02and later, heroin, to China in order to cure the addicts.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05- So...- How would you cure the addicts with...?
0:52:05 > 0:52:09You say you replace opium smoking with a pill
0:52:09 > 0:52:14and this pill would help you to reduce your appetite for opium.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17Ad the pill is morphine in the beginning and then it was heroin, so...
0:52:17 > 0:52:21- Which is also addictive.- Exactly. And they both came from opium.
0:52:21 > 0:52:27- So this is really ironic. - It's so cruel.- It is. It is.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30- These pills, what were they called? - Jesus pills.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32BOTH: Jesus pills.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34- Because they came from the missionaries.- Yes.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37Jesus loves you and therefore he would like you to have this little pill...
0:52:37 > 0:52:40And that will get rid of your opium addiction.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Even though the missionaries were sublimely ignorant
0:52:46 > 0:52:49of the devastating effect of heroin on addicts,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53their continued pressure eventually forced the British government
0:52:53 > 0:52:57to cease all opium trade with China by 1918.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04'But China has not forgotten.'
0:53:04 > 0:53:06I mean, I didn't know anything about the Opium Wars.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09I never learned it in school, nobody taught me about the Opium Wars.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11- In China, of course, it's very different.- Mm-hm.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14Textbooks from elementary school to middle school to high school
0:53:14 > 0:53:17to university highlight the wrongdoings
0:53:17 > 0:53:18of the so-called imperialists.
0:53:18 > 0:53:23Students will be led to the site where the Opium War took place.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28It has become part of what they call the patriarchal education programme
0:53:28 > 0:53:31to educate Chinese youth like me
0:53:31 > 0:53:35so that we remember what you had done to us.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38By the beginning of the 20th century,
0:53:38 > 0:53:43China had finally rid itself of the drug cartels,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46and in the UK, opium was banned,
0:53:46 > 0:53:52but, ironically, the very drug invented to cure opium addiction -
0:53:52 > 0:53:56heroin - would, by the late 20th century,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59create a whole new crisis, but this time,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01it would be on the streets of Great Britain.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07Perhaps a case of what goes around comes around.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10In my home town of Dundee,
0:54:10 > 0:54:15we now have over 3% of people hooked on drugs like heroin.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Indicative of a national problem, it's estimated
0:54:21 > 0:54:24the total economic and social cost of drug abuse in Scotland
0:54:24 > 0:54:28is £3.5 billion a year.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Legislation simply hasn't solved the problem.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37The number of opiate addicts in Scotland are at an all-time high.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41So can science provide answer?
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Enter neurobiologist Tim Hales.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46OK, that looks good.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49In Dundee, Tim's studying the effects of opiates
0:54:49 > 0:54:51on the brain at a cellular level.
0:54:51 > 0:54:56A recent breakthrough in the study of opium receptors may hold the key.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02What's new is we now, in 2012,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05have a molecular model of the receptor
0:55:05 > 0:55:10to which morphine and heroin interact.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14That's a little bit like a car mechanic having a workshop manual for a car.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16And this is what we have here? Is that...?
0:55:16 > 0:55:19So this is a structural model of the opiate receptor.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Part of the problem is that this receptor
0:55:22 > 0:55:24that is responsible for the actions of opiates
0:55:24 > 0:55:27is responsible for both the positive and the negative effects of opiates.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30So what we've got to try and do is figure out
0:55:30 > 0:55:34how does that receptor interact with different pathways in the brain
0:55:34 > 0:55:36- to cause addiction...- Right.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39..and how does the receptor interact with pathways in the brain
0:55:39 > 0:55:41that are responsible for the painkilling effects?
0:55:41 > 0:55:46The idea would be to try and design drugs that are pain-killing
0:55:46 > 0:55:48but not addictive.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Over the last 200 years,
0:55:57 > 0:56:02opium's relationship with man has forged an incredibly dramatic story.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09On the one hand, as an object of commerce,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12the illicit trade and exploitation of opium
0:56:12 > 0:56:15has created dubious untold wealth
0:56:15 > 0:56:18for a succession of predatory opportunists...
0:56:19 > 0:56:23..created at the expense and destabilisation of whole societies.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34On the other hand, opium remains a remarkable drug
0:56:34 > 0:56:36and, when controlled with care,
0:56:36 > 0:56:39it allows doctors to ease so much suffering,
0:56:39 > 0:56:44from our dying breath to the birth of a new life.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52But for this little soul, only time will tell if advances in science
0:56:52 > 0:56:56will create a pain-free world without addiction,
0:56:56 > 0:57:02a world where opiates really are the milk of human kindness.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd