The Art Snob Archive

Opium - Jan 26 2007

The twenty-first century has already seen many tragedies, dear readers, and one of its greatest is occurring right now in Afghanistan. Here exists a situation characterized by death, dislocation and destruction, with daily life trapped in a cycle of insurgency and retaliation.

What can we in the West do to help these poor people? Send in more troops? Perhaps. Build schools and hospitals? Maybe. Pursue chemical self-transcendence for artistic means? Most definitely.

With all this talk of suicide bombings and dead Canadian soldiers, it is easy to lose sight of the positive results of the Taliban’s removal from power. We are so quick to forget the dramatic reemergence of Afghanistan’s economy due to one invaluable commodity: Opium.

Indeed, poppy cultivation for the purpose of Opium production was greatly reduced during Taliban rule, banned by leader Mullah Omar on religious grounds. Following ‘liberation’ by the Western forces and due to a lack of any effective policing system, Afghan warlords (or “entrepreneurs”) were free to reclaim their stake in this profitable industry. Since 2001, production of opium has increased from 74 metric tonnes per year to an astounding 6,100 tonnes in 2006. This year the opium trade is expected to pump seven billion dollars into Afghanistan’s struggling economy. Bravo I say!

There is, however, a bit of a problem. Opium’s production in the Central Asian country is technically considered “illegal”. This is largely due to the fact that it isn’t regulated and usually ends up being converted into heroin for sale in Europe and the United States. Afghanistan, the source of a whopping 92% of the world’s opium supply, is thus not only a target of America’s War on Terror but also of its War on Drugs.

Recently, a European think tank suggested Afghan farmers be licensed to produce opium for the world pharmaceutical market, thus avoiding conversion to heroin and tapping into the considerable market for prescription opioid. A good idea, perhaps, but unlikely due to corruption issues in Afghanistan and strict UN requirements for medicinal exports.

Fear not, my friends; I have a much better idea. Sanction the export of pure opium but bypass the whole medicinal aspect. Legalize opium in the West and market it as a cure for modern artistic malaise.

Think, dear readers, what powered the Victorian era? Steam, yes, but what else? Opium. It was this magic ambrosia, this sacred manna that launched a golden age of British literature, inspiring such great minds as Oscar Wilde, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Edgar Allen Poe. The great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge described opium as “a means of escaping from pains that coiled around my mental powers, as a serpent around the body and wings of an eagle.” Thomas de Quincey called the drug “a panacea for all human woes; here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered.”

Opium was once considered a powerful tool which took its users into a dream state, increasing visionary awareness and allowing them to see with “an artist’s eye”. Disregarding the vomiting, frailty, profound depression, sense of utter darkness, horrifying ‘opium dreams’ and distorted conceptions of time and space that followed sustained use of the drug, opium was practically a gift from God, utilized by artists to achieve visions akin to those of William Blake and Thomas Aquinas. Truly magnificent stuff.

Now, I’ve been lobbying for the inclusion of Thomas de Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater in High School English curriculums for a long time, but why not take the campaign a step further? The CIA estimates that one-third of Afghanistan’s Gross Domestic Product is generated by opium export, and so it can’t be easily ignored. Why not nurture this positive growth? Utilize the surplus! Perhaps opium will be able to stop this flow of uninteresting fiction about secret societies and “ancient secrets” and aid in the restoration of literature in the West. Think of the Afghan people, and for God’s sake think of the cultured elite. Do your part. Write to your Member of Parliament today.

posted by HLL @ Tuesday, January 30, 2007