Opium nearly smoked out China, made Britain acquired tainted wealth and laid the foundation of the fortunes of many a notorious trading house, most infamously Jardine Matheson, and made a number of early 19th-century Bombay Parsi families, who were middlemen in the East India Company's illicit opium trade, very rich. And it continues to have a baneful influence because it is the life-blood of global narco terrorism. Celebrated author Amitav Ghosh's next book, 'Smoke and Ashes', to be released by HarperCollins India's Fourth Estate imprint on July 15, is, in the words of its sub-title, 'A Writer's Journey Through Opium's Hidden Histories'.