The Truth about Opium Smoking 1882

THE TRUTH ABOUT OPIUM SMOKING was a collaborative effort first published in 1882. In this re-publication through North Sea Tales Adult, A Rescuing Knowledge Project Book, we are brought into this decadent review of the history of Opium use in China, PRESENTED IN restored plates. In this new edition, Cagliastro offers an additional chapter correlating the materials from 1882 with the current Opioid "crisis" and the human search for Pleasure. EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK, written in 1882...
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THE TRUTH ABOUT OPIUM SMOKING was a collaborative effort first published in 1882. In this re-publication through North Sea Tales Adult, A Rescuing Knowledge Project Book, we are brought into this decadent review of the history of Opium use in China, PRESENTED IN restored plates. In this new edition, Cagliastro offers an additional chapter correlating the materials from 1882 with the current Opioid "crisis" and the human search for Pleasure. EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK, written in 1882 (followed by excerpts from the chapter by Cagliastro)'All I insist on is the downright innocencey, in itself, of opium-smoking ; and that, therefore, so far as we are concerned in its morality, whether judged by a standard based on a deduction from preconceived religious ideas, or an induction from national practices, we are as free to introduce opium into China, and to raise a revenue from it in India, as to export our cotton, iron, and woolen manufactures to France. 'I am not approving the use of stimulants-I have long ceased to do so. I am only protesting that there is no more harm in smoking opium than in smoking tobacco in the form of the mildest cigarettes, and that its narcotic effect can be but infinitesimal -if, indeed, anything measurable ; and I feel bound to publicly express these convictions, which can easily be put to the test of experiment, at a moment when all the stupendous machinery available in this country of crotchet-mongers and ignorant if well-meaning agitators, is being set in movement against the Indian opium revenue on the express ground of its falsely imputed immorality.'EXCERPTS FROM CAGLIASTRO'S CHAPTER AND CLOSING THOUGHTS"...- and we now live in a society where ALL HOUSES ARE GLASS and no one has privacy to explore all the multitude of options for PLEASURE...""How does all of this fit in with the point of this book? I feel there is a correlation between anesthetizing the self, and ignoring history. " "Why is this book, THE TRUTH ABOUT OPIUM-SMOKING so valuable to the modern reader? Well, it allows us to look back at an event with an ending which already exists. That is, an ending which exists "thus far". The Opium trade and the Opium war in China dismantled Chinese society in a way that is still not completely resolved. If we, as Pleasure seeking human beings can control our willingness to believe what is being told to us right now - and be willing to either look further outward for greater access to truth - or further inward, gaining control over our own lives, our futures and our Pleasures - or simplify our relationship with truth - then we can work specifically on our own Pleasure and release ourselves from guilt, shame, self-anesthetizing - and utilize these adult materials in ways where they provide a solid path to a grasp of own's own mind in combination with an association with PLEASURE.The Chinese experienced devastation from the Opium Trade in a way that, to this day, they have not have yet fully recovered. Yet they are smart about the acknowledgment of the chapters and actions of this devastation. Ask anyone who is of Chinese descent, as I have been doing, if they are made aware of this period of time in their history. Unlike many Americans who are not taught much about the history of their own country, Chinese children are well taught of the minefield of this terrible time in which their country spiraled downward due to the overwhelming presence of a particular narcotic, and the manipulation by foreign entities who gained great wealth at their expense."