Short answers, pulled from the story.
The earliest archaeological evidence of human use of opium poppies dates back to before 5000 BCE. Cultivation began around 3400 BCE in Mesopotamia by Sumerians who called the plant hul gil meaning joy plant.
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner first isolated morphine from the opium poppy in 1804. He published his results after thirteen years of research and a nearly disastrous trial on himself and three boys in 1817.
In 1729 the Qing Yongzheng Emperor officially prohibited the sale of opium except for a small amount for medicinal purposes. Opium was banned completely in 1799 and this prohibition continued until 1860.
In 2023 Burma overtook Afghanistan and became the world's largest producer of opium producing 1080 metric tons according the UN Southeast Asia Opium Survey report. In November 2023 a U.N report showed that in the entirety of Afghanistan poppy cultivation dropped by over 95%.
One acre harvested in this way can produce three to five kilograms of raw opium. The traditional method involves scratching immature seed pods by hand so latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue.