When people say drug kingpin or queenpin, it is mostly just a symbol of that person being the head of an illegal organisation. However, an actual queen, more specifically Queen Victoria, has actually been the biggest drug dealer of not just her time, but probably of all time.
Drugs and drug consumption weren’t as illegal in the olden era as they are now. At one point, many drugs like opium, cocaine, and more were being used not just by the royalty, but outright recommended by doctors and medical experts.
Yes, these drugs would be prescribed to treat ailments at some point. It’s not really that much of a strange thing to occur, considering the much beloved Coca Cola initially used to have cocaine as one of its ingredients, makeup had lead and other harmful substances, radium was used in watches, and more.
Self-preservation, perhaps, wasn’t really a concept back then. But what is known about Queen Victoria and her running the biggest drug empire?
Queen Victoria: The Drug Dealer?
Queen Victoria started the Victorian era from her reign between 837–1901. The iconic figure was at the center of many historic events over the course of her 63 years of reign, not one of which included the time she started importing opium to China, leading to the significant Opium Wars during the mid-19th century.
As per the book HUMAN HISTORY ON DRUGS: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence by Sam Kelly, Queen Victoria was a big fan of drugs, with her favourites being opium and cocaine.
According to Kelly, Queen Victoria, who took up the title of monarch of the British Empire at the young age of 18, would consume opium through laudanum every morning.
The laudanum was a drink made of “one-two punch of opium and alcohol,” considered a fashionable way to consume the drug, and was even prescribed to help with pain and discomfort. Doctors reportedly would even suggest it be given to toddlers during their teething process.
She would also take cocaine, a new drug in Europe and the United Kingdom at the time, usually with chewing gum and wine.
Besides this, as per Kelly, she “sipped a liquid form of cannabis” to help with menstrual pains, and took chloroform to “cope with the agonising pain of childbirth.”
Historian and author Tony McMahon in Smithsonian magazine stated, “Queen Victoria, I think by any standard, she loved her drugs.”
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However, her love of drugs wasn’t kept just to herself and her close parties, but she used it to bring in huge amounts of revenue to the British economy.
Apparently, the tea problem with the British was big, with an average London household spending as much as 5% of its income on tea, all of which was coming from China.
But while Britain was importing large quantities of tea from China, there was not enough export happening, tipping the scale in China’s favour. To balance this out, the British started to import opium to China, claiming it to be a powerful painkiller.
It all worked out well for the British Empire, because they had India under its control by then, with all its ample and fertile lands and free labour that they could get anything to do for them. So they grew opium on Indian soil and then exported it to China.
The addictive properties of the drug further ensured that China would keep demanding a constant supply and even pay high prices for it.
According to some estimates, opium taxes accounted for 15% or more of colonial India’s revenue, with the British Empire making millions in revenue from the drug trade.
Author Thomas Manuel in his book Opium Inc claimed that by “the 19th century, the British Raj was a narco-state—a country sustained by trade in an illegal drug.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Time, Mint, History Is Now
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This post is tagged under: Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria drugs, Queen Victoria drug dealer, british empire, Queen Victoria british empire, china, china british empire, british empire opium, Queen Victoria opium, Queen Victoria coccaine,
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