This paper analyses the relationship between the Ottoman State and cannabis addicts during the late nineteenth century. The topic is positioned within broader discussions on the modernisation of the Ottoman Empire, with an emphasis on the government’s response to users, which became increasingly informed by the crucial reliance on the importance of a productive society. I argue that an analysis of cannabis addicts, esrarke?ler, sheds light on a number of dynamics at play in the period surveyed. As addicts consumed their substances in Istanbul’s dimmer cafes, esrarhaneler, my research provides an insight into the dark areas of a city that was displaying the hazards of a 19th century metropolis. In my research, I am interested in assessing how drastically the Ottoman state favoured medical inquiries into the topic of drug addiction and whether this was part of a larger attempt to prevent the population from falling into the non-productive category. Thus, those who came to be designated as “esrarke?ler” presented the state with similar issues as orphans, vagrants, alcoholics, as well as people with venereal diseases. For the state, these individuals embodied not only a moral conundrum but also a political and social problem. As a consequence of the increased interest of the state for the fate of addicts, a rehabilitation centre was set up, possibly to reintroduce addicts into society and, at the same time, sanitise streets and cafes of individuals who would project a backward picture of an idle Oriental. At the same time, the state only leniently punished smugglers and users, while hangouts were closed down only temporarily. Moreover, farming cannabis was at times taken up by the state, possibly as a means to generate much needed revenue. The relationship between the state and esrarke?ler provides a good snapshot of the complicated demands and outcomes of the modernisation drive the Ottoman Empire had embarked on and depicts the complex juggling between morality, finances, and modern ethos, all of which were occupying the minds of late nineteenth century Ottoman state officials. This work, which fills a gap in the secondary literature on cannabis in the Ottoman Empire, is informed by a number of sources: official documents of the Ottoman State, Kad? registers, available nizamiye court records, period literature on morality and drug addiction, Ottoman journals, and pharmacological and biology treatise of the time.