Opium is a narcotic drug which is obtained from the unripe seed pod s of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum). To harvest opium, the skin of the ripening pods is scored by a sharp blade. The slashes exude a white, milky latex, which dries to a sticky brown resin that is scraped off the pods as raw opium. Opium resin contains two groups of alkaloids: phenanthrenes (including morphine and codeine) and benzylisoquinoline s (including papaverine). Morphine is by far the most prevalent and important alkaloid in opium, consisting of 10%-16% of the total. It binds to and activates μ-opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord and gut. Regular use, even for a few days, invariably leads to physical tolerance and dependence, and a characteristic and highly unpleasant withdrawal syndrome occurs when the dosage is suddenly reduced. Various degrees of psychological addiction can also occur, though this is relatively rare when opioids are properly used to treat pain as opposed for their euphoric effects. Strong pain is so stimulating itself that dependence when treating strong pain is rare. These mechanisms result from changes in nervous system receptors in response to the drug. In response to the drug, the brain creates new receptors for opiates. These receptors are "pseudo" receptors and do not work. When the opiates are out of the body, the brain has more receptors than before the use of the drug, but only the same amount of endogenus opiates ( endorphines) to fill these receptors. This is why opiate addiction is different from other addictions and also the reason for the fast building tolerance for the drug. (The brain needs more and more drugs to achieve the same effects.)
The image of the narcotic poppy capsule, an entheogen, was an attribute of deities, long before opium was extracted from its milky latex. At the Metropolitan Museum's Assyrian relief gallery, a winged deity in a bas-relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, dedicated in 879 BCCenturies: 10th century BC 9th century BC 8th century BC Decades: 920s BC 910s BC 900s BC 890s BC 880s BC 870s BC 860s BC 850s BC 840s BC 830s BC 820s BC Events and Trends 879 BC Death of Zhou yi wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China. 878 BC Zhou li wan, bears a bouquet of poppy capsules (prudishly described by the museum as pomegranates).
Opium has been a major item of trade for centuries, and has long been used as a painkiller and sedativeA sedative is a drug that depresses the central nervous system (CNS), which causes calmness, relaxation, reduction of anxiety, sleepiness, slowed breathing, slurred speech, staggering gait, poor judgment, and slow, uncertain reflexes. Sedatives may be ref. It was well known to the ancient GreeksAncient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the territory of the present Greek state, but also to those areas settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then kno, who named it opion ("poppy juice"), from which the present name - a LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and maisation - is derived. Many patent medicinePatent medicines were for the most part actually trademarked medicines, not patented. The word is given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels. It has become particularly associated with the sale of drug compounds in the nins of the 19th centuryAlternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical ( 18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801- 1900. Events The Little Ice Age ended were based around laudanumLaudanum is an alcoholic tincture of opium, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium''. In the 16th century, a Swiss physician named Paracelsus (1493-1541) experimented with the medical value of opium. He decided that its medical (anal (known as "tincture of opium", a solution of opium in alcoholIn general usage, alcohol (from Arabic al-khwl , or al-ghawl ) refers almost always to ethanol, also known as grain alcohol and often to any beverage that contains ethanol (see alcoholic beverage . This sense underlies the term alcoholism ( addiction to a). Opium can also be smoked, sometimes in combination with tobacco. Opium smoking was often associated with immigrant Chinese communities around the world, with "opium dens" becoming notorious fixtures of many Chinatowns.
In the 19th century, the smuggling of opium to China from India, particularly by the British, was the cause of the Opium Wars. It led to Britain seizing Hong Kong and to what the Chinese term the "century of shame". This illegal trade became one of the world's most valuable single commodity trades and was described by the eminent Harvard historian J.K Fairbank as "the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times."
There were no legal restrictions on the importation or use of opium in the United States until the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. Medicines often contained opium without any warning label. Today, there are numerous national and international laws governing the production and distribution of narcotic substances. Its pharmaceutical use is strictly controlled worldwide and non-pharmaceutical uses are generally prohibited.
Although opium is used in the form of paregoric to treat diarrhea, most opium imported into the United States is broken down into its alkaloid constituents. These alkaloids are divided into two distinct chemical classes, phenanthrenes and isoquinolines . The principal phenanthrenes are morphine, codeine, and thebaine, while the isoquinolines have no significant central nervous system effects and are not regulated under the Controlled Substances Act. Opium is also processed into heroin, and most current drug abuse occurs with processed derivatives rather than with raw opium.
