William Travis Hanes; Frank Sanello (2004). Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Sourcebooks, Inc. pp.78–. ISBN 978-1-4022-0149-3. Latimer, Dean, and Jeff Goldberg with an Introduction by William Burroughs. Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium. New York: Franklin Watts, 1981 The Greek gods Hypnos (Sleep), Nyx (Night), and Thanatos (Death) were depicted wreathed in poppies or holding them. Poppies also frequently adorned statues of Apollo, Asclepius, Pluto, Demeter, Aphrodite, Kybele and Isis, symbolizing nocturnal oblivion. [1] Islamic societies (500–1500 CE) [ edit ] Opium users in Java during the Dutch colonial period, c. 1870 Xiao, Shuiyuan; Yang, Mei; Zhou, Liang; Hao, Wei (February 2015). "Transition of China's drug policy: problems in practice". Addiction. 110 (2): 193–4. doi: 10.1111/add.12689. PMID 25602038. Ouchterlony, John (1844). The Chinese war: an account of all the operations of the British forces from the commencement to the Treaty of Nanking. London: Saunders and Otley.

Anil Aggrawal (1995). "CHAPTER 2: THE STORY OF OPIUM". Narcotic Drugs. New Delhi: National Book Trust. ISBN 978-81-237-1383-0. Hai guan zong shui wu si shu (1889). The poppy in China. Shanghai; Statistical Dept. of the Inspectorate General of Customs. Inglis, Lucy, Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium, Pan Macmillan, London, 2018. **Review: Julie Peakman: "Not Just Smelling the Flowers", History Today History Today Vol. 68/10, October 2018, pp.102–103. John K. Fairbanks, "The Creation of the Treaty System' in John K. Fairbanks, ed. The Cambridge History of China, vol. 10 Part 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1992) p. 213. cited in John Newsinger (October 1997). "Britain's opium wars – fact and myth about the opium trade in the East". Monthly Review. Archived from the original on February 13, 2006. Legal opium production is allowed under the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and other international drug treaties, subject to strict supervision by the law enforcement agencies of individual countries. The leading legal production method is the Robertson- Gregory process, whereby the entire poppy, excluding roots and leaves, is mashed and stewed in dilute acid solutions. The alkaloids are then recovered via acid-base extraction and purified. The exact date of its discovery is unknown, but it was described by Wurtz in his Dictionnaire de chimie pure et appliquée published in 1868. [138]

W. Travis Hanes III; Frank Sanello (February 1, 2004). The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Sourcebooks. pp.88–. ISBN 978-1-4022-5205-1. Extensive textual and pictorial sources also show that poppy cultivation and opium consumption were widespread in Safavid Iran [42] and Mughal India. [43] England [ edit ] Opium was prohibited in many countries during the early 20th century, leading to the modern pattern of opium production as a precursor for illegal recreational drugs or tightly regulated, highly taxed, legal prescription drugs. In 1980, 2,000 tons of opium supplied all legal and illegal uses. [20] Worldwide production in 2006 was 6610 tonnes [107]—about one-fifth the level of production in 1906; since then, opium production has fallen. [ citation needed] Drug Addiction Research and the Health of Women – pg. 33–52" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 22, 2008 . Retrieved March 21, 2010.

During the Communist era in Eastern Europe, poppy stalks sold in bundles by farmers were processed by users with household chemicals to make kompot (" Polish heroin"), and poppy seeds were used to produce koknar, an opiate. [99] Obsolescence [ edit ] Apothecary vessel for storage of opium as a pharmaceutical, Germany, 18th or 19th century David William Bebbington (1993). William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp.108–. ISBN 978-0-8028-0152-4. Donna Young (April 15, 2007). "Scientists Examine Pain Relief and Addiction". Archived from the original on December 6, 2007 . Retrieved June 6, 2007. Traditionally the unripened pod is slit open and the sap seeps out and dries on the outer surface of the pod. The resulting yellow-brown latex, which is scraped off of the pod, is bitter in taste and contains varying amounts of alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, thebaine and papaverine. Finn AK, Whistler JL (December 2001). "Endocytosis of the mu opioid receptor reduces tolerance and a cellular hallmark of opiate withdrawal". Neuron. 32 (5): 829–39. doi: 10.1016/S0896-6273(01)00517-7. PMID 11738029. S2CID 16396686.Afghan opium poppy cultivation plunges by 95 percent under Taliban: UN". Al Jazeera . Retrieved November 7, 2023. Opium prohibition in China began in 1729, yet was followed by nearly two centuries of increasing opium use. A massive destruction of opium by an emissary of the Chinese Daoguang Emperor in an attempt to stop opium smuggling by the British led to the First Opium War (1839–1842), in which Britain defeated China. After 1860, opium use continued to increase with widespread domestic production in China. By 1905, an estimated 25 percent of the male population were regular consumers of the drug. Recreational use of opium elsewhere in the world remained rare into late in the 19th century, as indicated by ambivalent reports of opium usage. [44] In 1906, 41,000 tons were produced, but because 39,000 tons of that year's opium were consumed in China, overall usage in the rest of the world was much lower. [48] These figures from 1906 have been criticized as overestimates. [49] A Chinese opium house; photographed in 1902

Use of opium as a cure-all was reflected in the formulation of mithridatium described in the 1728 Chambers Cyclopedia, which included true opium in the mixture. For light intensity: spray in a cloud around your head and shoulders, let the fragrance fall gently around you. a b c d e Alfred W. McCoy. "Opium History, 1858 to 1940". Archived from the original on April 4, 2007 . Retrieved May 4, 2007. Opium was for many centuries the principal painkiller known to medicine and was used in various forms and under various names. Laudanum, for example, was an alcoholic tincture (dilute solution) of opium that was used in European medical practice as an analgesic and sedative. Physicians relied on paregoric, a camphorated solution of opium, to treat diarrhea by relaxing the gastrointestinal tract. The narcotic effects of opium are mainly attributable to morphine, which was first isolated about 1804. In 1898 it was discovered that treating morphine with acetic anhydride yields heroin, which is four to eight times as potent as morphine in both its pain-killing properties and its addictive potential. The other alkaloids naturally present in opium are much weaker; codeine, for example, is only one-sixth as potent as morphine and is used mainly for cough relief. Since the late 1930s, various synthetic drugs have been developed that possess the analgesic properties of morphine and heroin. These drugs, which include meperidine (Demerol), methadone, levorphonal, and many others, are known as synthetic opioids. They have largely replaced morphine and heroin in the treatment of severe pain. This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( October 2022)Hall, Wayne; Weier, Megan (2017). "Lee Robins' studies of heroin use among US Vietnam veterans". Addiction. 112 (1): 177. doi: 10.1111/add.13584. PMID 27650054. S2CID 206974500 . Retrieved July 26, 2022. a b Aurin, Marcus (January 1, 2000). "Chasing the Dragon: The Cultural Metamorphosis of Opium in the United States, 1825–1935". Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 14 (3): 414–441. doi: 10.1525/maq.2000.14.3.414. JSTOR 649506. PMID 11036586. Most illicit heroin is sold as a white or brownish powder and may be "cut" with other substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. It can also be cut with strychnine or other poisons. Opium production in the Golden Triangle continues at high levels, threatening regional integration". unodc.org . Retrieved April 4, 2016. Alfred W. McCoy (1972). "The politics of heroin in Southeast Asia". Archived from the original on October 7, 2007 . Retrieved September 24, 2007.

Between 400 and 1200 CE, Arab traders introduced opium to China, and to India by 700. [19] [1] [12] [20] The physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi of Persian origin ("Rhazes", 845–930 CE) maintained a laboratory and school in Baghdad, and was a student and critic of Galen; he made use of opium in anesthesia and recommended its use for the treatment of melancholy in Fi ma-la-yahdara al-tabib, "In the Absence of a Physician", a home medical manual directed toward ordinary citizens for self-treatment if a doctor was not available. [21] [22]The first known cultivation of opium poppies was in Mesopotamia, approximately 3400 BCE, by Sumerians, who called the plant hul gil, the "joy plant". [11] [12] Tablets found at Nippur, a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad, described the collection of poppy juice in the morning and its use in production of opium. [1] Cultivation continued in the Middle East by the Assyrians, who also collected poppy juice in the morning after scoring the pods with an iron scoop; they called the juice aratpa-pal, possibly the root of Papaver. [13] Opium production continued under the Babylonians and Egyptians. Parrott A, Morinan A, Moss M, Scholey A. Understanding drugs and behaviour. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2004. Dioscorides,Introduction to The Herbal of Dioscorides the Greek Poppy crop from the Malwa in India (probably Papaver somniferum var. album [1]) Opium contains two main groups of alkaloids. Phenanthrenes such as morphine, codeine, and thebaine are the main psychoactive constituents. [153] Isoquinolines such as papaverine and noscapine have no significant central nervous system effects. Morphine is the most prevalent and important alkaloid in opium, consisting of 10–16 percent of the total, and is responsible for most of its harmful effects such as lung edema, respiratory difficulties, coma, or cardiac or respiratory collapse. Morphine binds to and activates mu opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord, stomach and intestine. Regular use can lead to drug tolerance or physical dependence. Chronic opium addicts in 1906 China [48] consumed an average of eight grams of opium daily; opium addicts in modern Iran [154] are thought to consume about the same. John Richards (May 23, 2001). "Opium and the British Indian Empire" . Retrieved September 24, 2007.