TY  - JOUR
AU  - Miron,Jeffrey A.
AU  - Feige,Chris
TI  - The Opium Wars, Opium Legalization, and Opium Consumption in China
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11355
PY  - 2005
Y2  - May 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11355
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11355.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeffrey A. Miron
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 781/856-0086
Fax: 617/495-8570
E-Mail: miron@fas.harvard.edu

Chris Feige
AB  - The effect of drug prohibition on drug consumption is a critical issue in debates over drug policy. One episode that provides information on the consumption-reducing effect of drug prohibition is the Chinese legalization of opium in 1858. In this paper we examine the impact of China's opium legalization on the quantity and price of British opium exports from India to China during the 19th century. We find little evidence that legalization increased exports or decreased price. Thus, the evidence suggests China's opium prohibition had a minimal impact on opium consumption.
ER  -