What is the importance of opium in the novel, Narcopolis?

In the 1970s and early 1980s, opium was the drug of choice in Bombay. Highly addictive, the quest to get high leads opium addicts to kill, brutalize, steal, manipulate, lie, and debase themselves in any possible way all for a high. Opium symbolizes the corrosion of Indian society, but over time, it is replaced by cocaine..