"China avenged by imposing the opium import ban that led to the First Opium War (1839-1842) between Great Britain and the Qing Dynasty China" (Berridge, 1981, p.5). China's highest officials fought against opium-free sales, while the UK pushed China to let Chinese traders bring opium without prohibitions. However, volumes of opium trade continued to grow, because smoking opium became a habit among normal people. It is not surprising that the number of opium addicts grew immensely in the nineteenth century. The Second Opium War took place in 1856, the result of the two wars was that "the British Crown, through the treaties of Nanking and Tianjin, took large sums of money from the Chinese government through this illegal trade, which Known as "Reparations" (Berridge, 1981, …show more content…
"The cost of crime committed to support illegal cocaine and heroin habits amounts to £ 16 billion a year in the UK" (Epstein, 1989, p.13). The fact that drugs were illegal could not, unfortunately, restrict actual sale and distribution, on the contrary this field of criminal activity was capable of bringing such high profits and the system was so well constructed that drugs were integrated In American culture. "This high price is caused by a combination of factors including possible legal ramifications for illicit drug providers and their high demand. (Limited supply can be caused by a number of factors) (Epstein, 1989, p. 14) Certain strata of society appeared, where high cost could not be an obstacle and drugs were used as a type of recreational activity.While the constant attempts to take control of this problem by the authorities, Being current for the US as well as other countries all over the world.The 1940s brought the ban on opiates, the 1960s - de la