Chasing the dragon

"Chasing the dragon" (a slang phrase of Cantonese origin from Hong Kong) refers to inhaling the smoke from heated morphine or heroin. (Opium is referred to as a dragon in Asian cultures.) The term evokes the similarity between the rippling smoke and a dragon's tail. Opium use was common throughout the Western world in colonial times, when Chinese were kept as slaves. The global presence of slavery caused a demand for opium that was filled by Western traders complicit with slave owners, as it kept the slaves mellow and eased the pain (and complaint) from hard labor. Opium dens consequently became common in Western trading ports during the period. In modern times, with the advent of heroin, the method traveled from China to Europe again, where, during the early 1990s, the technique spread to the Netherlands, and from there throughout the world. The most common form of smoked heroin is heroin base, which is also known as "number 3 heroin", so called because it forgoes the final steps to make the heroin into the salt heroin hydrochloride (see Heroin).
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