Opium has been traded for a long time. It was part of a variety of goods that have been bought and sold for millenia. In this episode of the History of Drugs in Society, we start by exploring the early evolution of opium being traded, Marco Polo and the Silk Road, and European colonization in Asia through the 1600s. 

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The audio used for the intro comes from The Great Age of Exploration (1400-1550) Documentary from Discovery Education Documentary and The Distant Drummer: Flowers of Darkness as posted on C-SPAN. Credits on the music goes to Blue Dot Sessions.