Employing a twofold theoretical framework of the social life of things and the moral economy, this article analyzes the value change of opiates in Nuosu society in Liangshan (Sichuan Province, China) and worldwide. The values attached to opiates have metamorphosed over time, and that has set the background conditions for the Nuosu's encounter with capitalist modernity. The concept of moral economy here means the ideational components above and beyond the circulation and consumption of economic substances, and it provides the foundation for my analysis of how opiates have changed from luxury items into 'harmful drugs.'