Building the «Opium Evil» Consensus – The International Opium Commissionof Shanghai

Abstract

Building the «Opium Evil» Consensus. The International Opium Commission of Shanghai Global narcotics control in the twentieth century developed based on the consensus that the use of drugs for non-medical purposes was morally despicable and therefore needed to be prohibited. This premise was first agreed upon by the International Opium Commission of Shanghai in 1909 and resulted from negotiations between delegations from China, the U.S. and the British Empire. Their differing perspectives on opium and on the opium trade shaped their positions of negotiation: all had to some extent experienced domestic opium problems but their economic interest in the opium trade did not align. Open negotiation and institutionalized international cooperation boosted moral arguments against what was conceived as the «opium evil». Under these conditions the U.S. and China managed to build the foundation for a prohibitive global narcotics regime that fit their purposes.