Opium : “a bitter brownish addictive narcotic drug that consists of the dried latex obtained from immature seed capsules of the opium poppy”
Opium is a thick liquid that can be extracted from an opium poppy. After the petals of the poppy have fallen, the bud is slightly sliced open and the raw opium can be taken out of the plant. To ensure the opium can be used to its full capability the poppy must be harvested at the right time. If it is too soon, the opium can be diluted and weak, but if it is too late, the alkaloid in the opium will not be as strong. Once the poppy is cut into and the opium is exposed to the air it turns a brownish color. When the opium hardens onto the poppy, it is ready to be scraped from the plant and processed for other uses, such as medicine for pain.
Opium has been used since ancient times. Fossils and cave drawings have been found from early civilizations in such places like Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia. It is thought that Neanderthal man could have been using opiates over 30,000 years ago. These ancient recordings explain that they used opium for a few different reasons. The people used to opium for please, to cure illness, and for poison. When opium was first discovered they did not use needles to inject it or pipes to smoke it. The opium poppy was chewed and eaten or mixed into another liquid to drink. This was of taking the drug causes a long period of time before it reaches the brain. Because it has to go all the way through the digestive system, the bloodstream, and then to the brain, it could take up to 30 minutes to reach the brain and become effective. Since the response was so slow, there was a much less chance of abusing the drug.
As time went on the use of opium increased. Once morphine, heroin, and codeine were isolated from the opium the uses become much more common. These three isolated drugs became uses for different pains. Morphine became especially popular during the civil war after the invention of the syringe. As the abuse of morphine began to grow, it became known as “soldier’s disease”. Heroin was then isolated form the morphine as an attempt to stop the abuse of morphine. Once heroin was out, it became obvious that it was actually more addicting than morphine. Codeine was extracted from the plant because it was not as strong as morphine or heroin. Codeine’s major use has been for cough syrup and an outpatient pain killer.
Inaba, Darryl S. and William E. Cohen. Uppers Downers All Arounders. Oregon: CNS Production, Inc., 2007. Print.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opium
http://www.erowid.org/plants/poppy/opium_poppy_cultivation/opium_poppy_cultivation3.shtml
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