Short answers, pulled from the story.
Friedrich Sertürner isolated morphine from opium in December 1804. He named the substance morphium after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus, and it became the first active alkaloid ever extracted from a plant.
Commercial production of morphine began in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1827. The pharmacy that started production later became the pharmaceutical company Merck, and morphine sales were a large part of their early growth.
The morphine molecule exists in 32 stereoisomeric forms due to having five stereogenic centers. The desired analgesic activity resides exclusively in the natural product, the (-)-enantiomer with the configuration 5R,6S,9R,13S,14R.
Scientists discovered that morphine occurs naturally in the human body in 2003. This finding ended thirty years of speculation about the existence of endogenous morphine and the mu3-opioid receptor in human tissue.
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States consumed 79% of the world's morphine supply according to a 2005 estimate by the International Narcotics Control Board. These six countries account for the vast majority of global morphine consumption.
Major morphine withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 hours and 96 hours after the last dose and subside after about 8 to 12 days. Without intervention, most overt physical symptoms disappear within 7 to 10 days.