麻豆社

Derived from the juice of the poppy, it relieves our pain and cures our insomnia. It may even inspire great art. It also causes addiction, misery and death. Historian Lucy Inglis' new book explores man's long and complex relationship with opium.

The final episode of Milk of Paradise looks at the global issue of heroin addiction today.

"It's everywhere, isn't it?" says the author's husband, as they sit in a bar in the south of France watching some twitchy addicts at the next table.

"Yes," she agrees, but concludes on a controversially non-judgmental note that "the very ordinariness of it all made me remember than addictions of all kinds surround us, making us neither good nor bad, nor less human. They make us who we are. Our petty daily tallies, the small triumphs in the face of finality, are measured out in teaspoons for the billionaire and the street addict alike."

Milk of Paradise is written by Lucy Inglis and abridged by Anna Magnusson.

The reader is Anita Vettesse.

The producer is David Jackson Young.