--- title: Drug History—Opium Addiction as Shown by LIFE in 1949 description: The United Nations will mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26 canonical: https://time.com/4160275/1949-saigon-opium-detox-clinic/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-24T12:30:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:44.737Z og:title: Drug History—Opium Addiction as Shown by LIFE in 1949 og:description: The United Nations will mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26 og:url: https://time.com/4160275/1949-saigon-opium-detox-clinic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta992c9768b920a04/698876bb196cf406440399db/151223-opium-addicts-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Opium addicts in Saigan 1949 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Drug History—Opium Addiction as Shown by LIFE in 1949 twitter:description: The United Nations will mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta992c9768b920a04/698876bb196cf406440399db/151223-opium-addicts-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Inside the Twisted Economics of a 1949 Saigon Opium Detox Clinic by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Jun 24, 2016 12:30 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Opium smokers seek escape on one of the melancholy wood benches of a Saigan "disintoxification clinic." Opium is a monopoly of the French colonial administration in Indo-China and provides a large source of revenue. Caption from LIFE. Opium smokers seek escape on one of the melancholy wood benches of a Saigan "disintoxification clinic." Opium is a monopoly of the French colonial administration in Indo-China and provides a large source of revenue.Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Jun 24, 2016 12:30 PM UTC The opium smokers appeared only briefly in [the original story](https://books.google.com/books?id=hU0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA98&dq=%22opium+smokers+seek%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjT46uVkb3NAhWD5CYKHS7rCdkQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=%22opium%20smokers%20seek%22&f=false) that ran in LIFE, a photo essay from 1949 about life in what was, then, French Indochina. The area that is now Vietnam was bucking French colonial rule, and the magazine saw its citizens as symbols of the “question of empire in the 20th century.” Among a series of picturesque scenes from a “rich, beautiful” dying system, there they were: three opium smokers, seen in the first slide above, at a detox clinic in Saigon. On the United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which falls every year on June 26, one detail from that caption stands out: opium, the magazine explained, was a high-revenue monopoly product of the French government in Indochina. In other words, the abuse side of the situation—addiction and its ravages—was inextricable from the trafficking side, the economic motivation to keep illicit substances available. (Of course, this was not the only example of opium’s implication in a controversial colonial system: [China and Britain fought two wars](http://www.britannica.com/topic/Opium-Wars) in the 19th century over the opium trade.) At the time, LIFE reported, more than half of the population of the city smoked the drug—and one-fifth of the French administrative budget came from sales of it. By 1950, TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1950-05-29/page/26/) that the system existed “to French shame.” But it existed nonetheless. One of the ways opium was made so readily available in Saigon at the time was at the detox clinics like the one where these photos were taken. These clinics – to some [observers](http://time.com/vault/issue/1955-01-03/page/24/), they would be more accurately described as “dens” – used to sell increasingly small doses, which could taper an addiction. Whether they actually helped anyone recover from addiction is a mystery the photographs cannot reveal.  Caption from LIFE. Opium smokers seek escape on one of the melancholy wood benches of a Saigan "disintoxification clinic." Opium is a monopoly of the French colonial administration in Indo-China and provides a large source of revenue. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Racks of opium pipes lining walls in drug clinic. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Patient being weaned off opium, receiving limited quantity. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opium addict lighting up, receiving limited quantity to wean off the drug. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opium addicts at a clinic in Saigon. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opium addict at a clinic in Saigon. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opium addict at a clinic in Saigon. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opium addict at a clinic in Saigon. Jack Birns—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opium addicts in clinic, being given diminishing doses, weaning them off the drug gradually. 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