The effects of government policy on drug user Java, 1875-1904

We study a period of Javanese history when the consumption of opium was leg al, but the supply of it was undergoing substantial institutional transform ation. Through most of the nineteenth century the opium trade was organized into a system of "revenue farms," which were privately owned local monopol ies that bought raw opium from the government, refined it, and sold it to c onsumers. After 1893 this system was replaced by a government monopoly, the so-called opium regie, which controlled importation, refining, and retaili ng. Our main conclusion is that this change in policy substantially reduced opium consumption.