HIST-3790H: Opium & Making of Modern World
Instructor: Van Nguyen-Marshall
Course Code: HIST 3790
When Taken: Fall 2023
Major Essay: Determining Danger_ The 1961 UN Single Convention On Narcotic Drugs
This was the first time that this course ran, and that comes with all the usual problems of pacing. Regardless, I really liked the course and it’s content. It wasn’t a particularly challenging course, but it was interesting the constant connections between history of colonial East Asia and modern conflicts surrounding opium. It challenged a view that opium is always harmful, and fought against proposals for outright prohibition. I found these persuasive, and have since used the evidence presented in this course to resist arguments from my family and peers which seek to villainize drugs and their users.