The United States is losing the New Opium War with China. Leaders in Washington, D.C. appear unwilling to acknowledge that a fight even exists. A crisis of addiction in China in the 19th century, ...

The opium poppy looks delicate and innocuous. But for Amitav Ghosh, an Indian writer, it is “one of the most powerful beings that humans have encountered in their time on Earth”. Mr Ghosh’s elegant ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Where there's smoke: a 19th-century engraving of opium addicts - Archive Collection / Alamy Stock Photo There are rumours that ...

In the final pages of Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories, Amitav Ghosh volunteers a startling confession. Though he had spent many years working on the book and had “accumulated an enormous ...

The problem began with a flower, a delicate blossom with a slender stalk. It was a fragile-looking plant, with petals as fine as tissue paper, yet it proved to be a formidable opponent. As the ...