WI: Mongol States become Drug Cartels and get the Old World addicted to Marijuana and Opium?

GuildedAgeNostalgia

1. Mongol Empire and it's successor states spanned from China and Korea to Eastern Europe and much of the Middle East. This means they rule over much of the old world.

2. In the center of this empire lays Central Asia, and it's here that we see some of the first recorded cases of Marijuana and Opium production.

3. Both within and outside the Mongol Empire lies the Silk Road, a vast trade network that connects the far East with Europe, India, the Middle East, and even Africa.

4. Mongols have a well trained, fear inspiring, highly mobile army to defend their empire and trade network.



Puts these 4 things together and what do you get.....

The chance to make the world's largest and most powerful drug cartel in human history.

With a pod of 1250 at the earliest how can we make the above goal happen? Bonus if you can get at least 10 percent of the old world (Europe, Asia, and Africa) population addicted to drugs.
 
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Unkown00

Unkown00

I’m not religious so don't come at me but I assume both the Islamic and Christian world would attempt to regulate the trade of drugs from the Mongols. Also, I guest Marco polo gets high.
 

JSilvy

I feel like this deserves some sort of award for being one of the most creative yet plausible hypotheticals on this forum.

I guess the easiest thing you could do is have one of the Khans venture into Central Asia and have them try either cannabis or opium, decide they like it, and make it seen as a more valuable commodity in the empire. That would get it wide spread and cause more people to become addicted.
 

GuildedAgeNostalgia

Unkown00 said:
I’m not religious so don't come at me but I assume both the Islamic and Christian world would attempt to regulate the trade of drugs from the Mongols. Also, I guest Marco polo gets high.
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Muslims and Christians in otl had access to Opium, but the head's of the religions believe it was to be used solely for medical purposes.

- The best way to introduce it outside of the empire is for the Mongols to threaten invasion on those who don't allow it for recreational purposes.

- in otl 1800s, up to 25 percent of China's male population was addicted to Opium so getting the masses addicted shouldn't be asb.

- another possibility for expanding the drug trade would be instead of enslaving/killing prisoners of war, the mongols forcibly get the pows addicted to drugs and then release them back to their homeland. They restart their normal lives, earn some money, buy the drugs they crave, and share it with their friends, the cycle repeats.
 

GuildedAgeNostalgia

Also, recreational opium use in pre 1900 otl was more common among the wealthy... Just think what would happen if the upper classes/nobility of Europe were constantly high...
 
Aghasverov

Aghasverov

From what I've read, the Khans' drug of choice was alcohol... and lots of it. Never tried fermented mare's milk, but it must have quite a kick to it :)
With all of Eurasia high or in an opium stupor, I could see a much less productive but far more peaceful past 800 years... "I was planning to lead my armies and conquer the world!!.... but then I got high...." :cool:
 

Arkenfolm

Isn't quite a bit of Europe suitable for opium cultivation (and of course cannabis)? Hard to be a cartel if everyone is openly growing and using the drugs you're selling.
Aghasverov said:
From what I've read, the Khans' drug of choice was alcohol... and lots of it. Never tried fermented mare's milk, but it must have quite a kick to it :)
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It's not. Typically kumys (fermented milk) has about 3% ABV. You can raise the alcohol content a little bit by letting it ferment longer or freeze distill it but I don't know how common the latter was.
 

Madhukar_Shah

metalinvader665 said:
Typically kumys (fermented milk) has about 3% ABV
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That's why they developed a culture of consuming vast amounts of alcohol, and when they switched over to types that had a higher alcohol content, they kept on drinking the same amounts and so alcohol abuse became endemic in much of inner Asian society.
 
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