You really have to work hard to get hooked on smoking opium. But leave it to an obsessive antiques collector to figure out how to get to addicted to a 19th-century drug. Recently, Steven Martin β no relation to the actor β came by the Collectors Weekly office and told me all about his harrowing journey from collecting to substance abuse.
He started out collecting innocuous things; at first, it was seashells and stones, then it was currency and Asian antiques like textiles.
Eventually the Navy veteran found his way to Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked as a journalist and travel writer, covering Southeast Asia. There, he also discovered the beauty of antique opium pipes, bowls, and lamps, as well as opium trays and the hundreds of little implements that went with the ritual.
Because opium smoking had been so thoroughly eradicated around the globe in the early 20th century, Martin realized very little had been written about these objects. After years of intense research, he produced the first opium-smoking antiques guide, The Art of Opium Antiques, in As he came across various pipes and tools, he sought out the last of the Laotian opium dens to learn how these accoutrements were used and, yes, to try them himself.
Steven Martin: There was something dark about it. People collect all sorts of weird things, like old torture mechanisms, just bizarre stuff. I think this falls into the same category.
