This work reveals the opium trade, how it came to be and how the author proposed to stop it. Opium is not profitable in its legitimate use. It is only profitable because of the demands of addicts, men and women deliberately debauched, either through the legalized machinery of colonial governments, or through the illegal activities of smugglers. A moral sentiment that will balk at this immense overproduction, the sole object of which is to create drug victims, is the only weapon to fight it. In giving this book to the public, the author was calling upon that moral sentiment.