What were they like in your youth? Did you ever make it to Chinatown to partake?
I had some great times there!
by Anonymous | reply 2 | 06/26/2020 |
Yes... all of you partiers out there that are over 100, do please tell us what it was like!
by Anonymous | reply 3 | 06/26/2020 |
Based on those photos, looks like it just ppl wanna sleep
by Anonymous | reply 4 | 06/26/2020 |
Just makes*
by Anonymous | reply 5 | 06/26/2020 |
no. But if I had, I probably would still be there now.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | 06/26/2020 |
There was one in Princeton New Jersey I used to frequent. It was in an old polo stable at Bunny's country place. Lots of big cushions and we would read poetry.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | 06/26/2020 |
The scourge of late 19th century China. Out of a population of 300 million, about one-third were addicted to opium.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | 06/26/2020 |
They look like heroin addicts.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | 06/26/2020 |
San Francisco was full of them.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | 06/26/2020 |
^ How long ago??
by Anonymous | reply 11 | 06/26/2020 |
Did you ever see SCENT OF A WOMAN...on opium?
by Anonymous | reply 12 | 06/26/2020 |
R11 Turn of the century
by Anonymous | reply 13 | 06/26/2020 |
Opium is still popular in places like Afghanistan.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | 06/26/2020 |
San Francisco is now an open air heroin den.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | 06/26/2020 |
China had a hell of a time addressing the addiction problem. It really wasn't until Mao that mass-scale opium addiction was eradicated -- with rehabilitation and medical help for those who were cooperative, but also labor camps, imprisonment, and even execution for those weren't cooperative.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | 06/26/2020 |
I've read about the opium trade and it was the only time in recent history that the West had an economic advantage over China. Now we have to kow-tow ( abasement, humiliation) with respect to the Middle Kingdom to secure PPE and medications.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | 06/26/2020 |
It's an old drug, almost obsolete. Not unlike morphine.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | 06/26/2020 |
What was the fun of it? I mean... I'm all for an altered state but how much of it did you enjoy? Seems like you mainly just went out (I guess that could be it then.)
by Anonymous | reply 21 | 06/26/2020 |
R21 I read an article about opium years ago. I think it was in vanity Fair, that talked about how genuine opium was almost impossible to find, and how the high was unbelievable but impossible to come down (I rally can’t remember). It was an interesting article and the writer had to got through a lot of trouble to get some. Most so called opium that they sell now is heroin or morphine. Real opium is impossible to get and extremely expensive.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | 06/26/2020 |
r13, you need to say "turn of the 20th century". Turn of the century now means at the beginning of the 21st century.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | 06/26/2020 |
Prime dick!
by Anonymous | reply 24 | 06/26/2020 |
I love scary old opium den photos.
This article has many, mostly of Chinese smokers.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | 06/26/2020 |
Without opium, there'd be no Hong Kong.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | 06/26/2020 |
R25, I hope that poor cat is not high on opium.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | 06/27/2020 |
I went to an opium din but I couldn't bear the noise.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | 06/27/2020 |
Also sorry for all the odd typos. New phone and all.
r22
by Anonymous | reply 29 | 06/27/2020 |
R8 the USA should Covertly flood China with cheap opium and maybe we could get a third of the county addicted again.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | 06/27/2020 |
When YSL launched Opium the perfume in 1977, there was considerable outrage and horror because of the drug association. You would think they called it "Pussy Juice."
by Anonymous | reply 31 | 06/27/2020 |
R30, China, in fact, seems to be doing the opposite to us and other western nations -- flooding us with cheap opioids, including those dangerous Fentanyl patches, etc.
I believe China refers to that period in history as their "100 years of humiliation." From around the first Opium War until the end of WWII, China was on the losing end of a lot of foreign interference. It's almost inconceivable to think of a country having one-third of its population addicted to heavy narcotics. That would be a disaster.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | 06/27/2020 |
Opium just seems like it makes you want to sleep. Is it like Ambien?
by Anonymous | reply 33 | 06/27/2020 |
R33, I think the closest thing people would compare it to nowadays is like heroin. It incapacitates the user and doesn't exactly make them very industrious.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | 06/27/2020 |
They have crazy eyes.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | 06/27/2020 |
R22 Is this the article you are thinking of?
Vanity Fair:
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM-SEEKER
Driven by romantic, spiritual, and medicinal imperatives, the author goes in search of something everyone tells him no longer exists: an opium den. From Hong Kong to Bangkok to the Golden Triangle, he is offered every decadence known to the East—and learns the truth about a legendarily perfect drug.
BY NICK TOSCHES
NOVEMBER 10, 2009
by Anonymous | reply 36 | 06/27/2020 |
Here's a pipe for you, sir.
(Prince is five and two, sir.)
Can't you see the garden?
It's such a lovely garden...
I'll take you there, I know the path so well...
To Hell."
by Anonymous | reply 37 | 06/27/2020 |
*Price
by Anonymous | reply 38 | 06/27/2020 |
is smoking opium what they called chasing the dragon?
by Anonymous | reply 39 | 06/27/2020 |
Ask Olivia de Havilland
by Anonymous | reply 41 | 06/27/2020 |
Ask Gabrielle Carteris.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | 06/27/2020 |
It looks pretty nice. Why is opium illegal?
by Anonymous | reply 43 | 06/27/2020 |
All my memories of Opium dens come from Thoroughly Modern Millie, Doctor Who, and Agatha Christie.
Yes, I’d get addicted and require treatment at a sanitarium that had ponies and LSD.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | 06/27/2020 |
R43, I think because other drugs at least prod people to move around a bit. Opium was highly addictive, rendered people immobile and useless, with less energy than even a zombie. You can imagine how that might create a huge problem when a third of your population is in that state.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | 06/27/2020 |
It looks relaxing.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | 06/28/2020 |
That Nick Tosches article posted above is from 2000, not 2009. So the connected old timers who managed to get him opium in SEA even at that time are probably dead by now (Nick himself died last fall). It does seem to be an entirely dead drug scene, but is that really such a bad thing?
by Anonymous | reply 48 | 06/28/2020 |
We had a nice den in my home growing up, we had a color TV and a ping pong table. And a parakeet. Oh wait I thought it said "tell me all about Ohio dens." Then I put my specs on. Never mind.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | 06/28/2020 |
It's still a huge problem in Afghanistan, partly due to poppy cultivation there, and also during war there, people looked for escapism in the form of a cheap, readily available high.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | 06/28/2020 |
R36 I believe that’s the article.
R50 from what I gather, those “opium” poppies are just heroin and the farmers and dealers lie so they can charge more. Who knows though, maybe they really are opium. There’s not much way to prove it. The article at r36 was written a while ago, so maybe some enterprising dealers have decided to start cultivating it again.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | 06/28/2020 |
Make China Opium Again
by Anonymous | reply 52 | 06/28/2020 |
Opium sounds nice, except even a half of a hydrocodone constipates me for a week.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | 06/28/2020 |
R51, you're probably right. I didn't realize opium was such a scarce commodity until reading the article at R36. Great article, btw. Really brings home how ancient opium is -- around since the days of Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and ancient Greeks.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | 06/28/2020 |
BTW, I wonder who the author is referencing when he mentions that famous French celebrity fashion designer who apparently has a huge opium habit?
by Anonymous | reply 55 | 06/28/2020 |
Catherine Deneuve looked fabulous sinking opium in INDOCHINE.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | 06/28/2020 |
SMOKING
by Anonymous | reply 57 | 06/28/2020 |
I made/harvested my own opium 30 years ago. I learned a lot.
The poppy life/blooming cycle is daylight-length dependent. I planted the seeds at the wrong time and they grew in the fall and then went semi-dormant all winter. Where I live it's warm enough in winter and I thought they'd grow during the winter. Plant them at the right time, probably in late winter or early spring as soon as there's no danger of frost.
I planted some in pots and others in the dirt. The ones in the dirt grew much larger. I also transplanted a couple and that screwed them up, some died and the rest were stunted. They don't like being moved.
They finally bloomed in late spring. This was at the very beginning of the internet, so I had to go to the library and find books on how to harvest the sap. I waited about 10 days after they bloomed. Using a box knife, I made a few pokes 5 to 7 mm vertically around half the circumference of the seed bulb in the morning. In the evening I scraped the sap off the cuts. Next morning I poked the other side of the bulb and repeated. It took a few days to gather a few grams of opium. As it dried it turned from white to gray to black.
Then a college friend - from northern Italy where I learned they do a lot of recreational drugs - and I mixed some with weed and smoked it. We got very spaced out, relaxed and euphoric, then tranced out, half-napping for a couple hours. Then it began to wear off and maybe 3 hours later we were almost back to normal.
Unfortunately I had a roommate who found out what I had made and took it upon himself to go into my room, seize the rest of my opium, and dispose of it. So I only got to try it that one time.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | 06/28/2020 |
R58 can you use any kind of poppy?
by Anonymous | reply 59 | 06/28/2020 |
I'm going to answer my own question at R55 and guess that it was Yves Saint-Laurent he was alluding to (he had a perfume named Opium)?
by Anonymous | reply 60 | 06/28/2020 |
r58, that's definitely an interesting story!
by Anonymous | reply 61 | 06/28/2020 |
R62, I think anything that is as addictive as opium is purported to be is not something to be trifled with.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | 06/28/2020 |
Deneuve made it look glamorous in Indochine.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | 06/28/2020 |
R36, great article. My question is this -- so the guy finally finds opium after searching all over Asia, he ends up taking it a few times and loving it, calling it the 'perfect drug." What happened after? Did he become addicted? Just a one-off thing?
by Anonymous | reply 65 | 06/29/2020 |
R58- I. have smoked some opium with pot. It was exactly how you described. I. would add it can make you more intimate with those around you. I did it with an old friend. But I loved it!
by Anonymous | reply 66 | 06/29/2020 |
R66, it wasn't addictive?
by Anonymous | reply 67 | 06/29/2020 |
My guess was YSL too re: the opium addict. Didn’t he used to run around Morocco just so he could smoke opium and chase underage boys with no hassle from the law?
R58’s description of farming the poppy is also talked about a bit in the article. Not only is it almost impossible to find a real opium poppy, it’s a finicky plant and most of them have been destroyed because it’s a drug that was so addictive it took down entire countries.
One of my mother’s old riich relatives was an opium addict. He’s dead. It had nothing to do with opium, he was old.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | 06/29/2020 |
R68, you have rebel gardeners throughout the US claiming opium poppies. In planting Zone5, my mom claimed her opium poppies needed morning and noon sun with shade in the afternoon.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | 06/29/2020 |
I'd love to try it. Right up my alley I reckon.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | 06/29/2020 |
Why yes, I remember back in 1905 I used to have a place to repair to. It was delightful, don't believe the negative press.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | 06/29/2020 |
China is still so traumatized by their opium epidemic, in fact, that I believe the punishment for selling it is the death penalty...
by Anonymous | reply 73 | 06/29/2020 |
Thanks for the article recommendation r-36. Beautiful writing.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | 06/29/2020 |
R67- I wasn't addicted.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | 06/30/2020 |
I’m all about the crack dens!
by Anonymous | reply 76 | 06/30/2020 |
Opium dens in movies: Once Upon a Time in America - DeNiro is in a den; many reviewers believed the entire movie was his 'pipe dream' of how he remembered his life.
The original Razor's Edge - Ann Bancroft is in a den, trying to numb herself from her husband's death and Tyrone Power rescues her.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | 06/30/2020 |
The Blacklist had Red (James Spader) in an opium den after he thinks Elizabeth is dead.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | 06/30/2020 |
That "From Hell" film about Jack the Ripper had an opium den scene, but I believe it was widely inaccurate, as it was a mishmash of a character drinking absinthe and having an opium-like high.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | 07/04/2020 |
Tons of pussy!!!!!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 80 | 07/04/2020 |
"the USA should Covertly flood China with cheap opium and maybe we could get a third of the county addicted again."
Speaking of oxycontin, how are American addicts doing during COVID? They okay? Dying in droves? Happy for the Chinese to help re-elect Trump?
Pretty sure America is too busy being China's bitch to do much now.
That is, when we aren't being Putin's bitch.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | 07/04/2020 |
The ending of McCABE & MRS. MILLER has Julie Christie in an opium den.
That’s my only experience with them - -
by Anonymous | reply 82 | 07/04/2020 |
by Anonymous | reply 83 | 07/04/2020 |
R74, I agree about the writing. I read the article twice -- as I liked his style so much.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | 07/05/2020 |
Those 1890s people sure knew how to party.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | 07/05/2020 |
An upscale heroin den features in The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). The Philip Seymour Hoffman character spends time there. I didn't know there was such a thing. Is there?
by Anonymous | reply 87 | 07/20/2020 |
What are opiates, then? Opioids.
Whatever. There is always some scourge of a drug to thin the herd. People want to escape and I don’t blame them.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | 07/20/2020 |
I wouldn’t go to an opium den.
I only go to opium drawing rooms.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | 07/20/2020 |
Was Gremlins an allegory for opium addiction?
by Anonymous | reply 90 | 07/20/2020 |
I opium mother is feeling better.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | 07/23/2020 |