Short answers, pulled from the story.
The earliest evidence of human interaction with the opium poppy dates back to before 5000 BCE. Neolithic settlements across Switzerland, Germany, and Spain contained large numbers of poppy seed capsules at burial sites such as the Cueva de los Murciélagos in Spain, which has been carbon-14 dated to 4200 BCE.
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner first isolated morphine from the opium poppy in 1804. This isolation marked the beginning of the process where purified morphine replaced raw plant material as the preferred treatment method due to its known dosage.
The Taliban imposed a ban on opium production in Afghanistan in 2000. This ban cut production by 94 percent to 74 tons per year before production leapt back up after American and British troops invaded Afghanistan and removed the Taliban.
The Chinese Commissioner Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 chests of opium in Guangzhou in 1839. This event led to the First Opium War in 1840 and resulted in the British queen Victoria winning Hong Kong and trade concessions.
Burma overtook Afghanistan and became the world's largest producer of opium in 2023. According to the UN Southeast Asia Opium Survey report, Burma produced 1080 metric tons of opium that year.