To: energyplay who wrote (64333 ) 5/27/2005 3:52:45 AM From: Snowshoe Read Replies (1) | Respond to Quakers were in the forefront of the anti-opium movement...Opium and the British Indian Empire drugpolicy.org As Indian opium traffic soared, the volume of criticism directed at it grew-especially in Britain. Reformers, headed by evangelicals and Quakers, organized, petitioned and put Parliamentary resolutions aimed at stopping the trade. Throughout the nineteenth century evangelicals and Quakers were disturbed by the moral implications of Indian opium. They were unhappy about forcing the Qing Emperors to accept a product that they regarded as harmful to their people. They saw opium as an obstacle to the work of Christian missionaries in China. They were doubtful about the Government of India's role as official monopolist in the Bengal system and its heavy reliance upon opium revenues. They thought that Indian officials encouraged opium eating in India to increase excise revenues-a view fostered by British and American missionaries laboring to make converts there.
