Abstract
In the early twentieth century, British pharmaceutical manufacturers produced a massive amount of morphia, almost all of which ended up as a part of the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs between Europe and the Far East. This traffic became so immense that a reluctant British government was embarrassed into placing the manufacture and trade of narcotic drugs under regulation in the Dangerous Drugs Act (1920). The DDA reduced, but did not halt, the flow of drugs between Britain and the Far East. The trial and conviction of an international drug smuggler, H.M.F. Humphrey, in 1923, revealed some of the details of this illicit traffic, as well as the links between the smugglers and the drug manufacturers. The issues raised by this study have significance for a number of contemporary drug issues.
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