Opium

• 1. Ancient Origins And Rituals

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  The Mediterranean region holds the earliest archaeological evidence of human use of opium poppies dating back to before 5000 BCE. Cultivation began around 3400 BCE in Mesopotamia by Sumerians who called the plant hul gil, meaning joy plant. Tablets found at Nippur described the collection of poppy juice in the morning and its use in production of opium. Evidence from ancient Greece indicates that opium was consumed in several ways including inhalation of vapors and suppositories. The Egyptians cultivated opium thebaicum in famous poppy fields around 1300 BCE. Opium was traded from Egypt by the Phoenicians and Minoans to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea. A figurine of a goddess dated to around 1300 BC from the Minoan period contains three hairpins shaped as poppy capsules. These hairpins contain slits that suggest the Cretans knew the method of extracting opium. Initiates of the cult of Demeter would most likely have taken opium during religious ceremonies. Helen of Sparta is said to have used the nepenthes drug which some authors believe to be a concoction containing opium. In ancient Greece it was regarded as a magic and poisonous plant that was used in religious ceremonies.

• 2. Medical Renaissance And Reformulation

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  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. Morphine sales began in 1827 by Heinrich Emanuel Merck of Darmstadt who helped expand his family pharmacy into the Merck KGaA pharmaceutical company. Codeine was isolated in 1832 by Pierre Jean Robiquet. The use of diethyl ether and chloroform for general anesthesia began in 1846, 1847 and rapidly displaced the use of opiates. Heroin was first synthesized in 1874 but not pursued until its rediscovery in 1897 by Felix Hoffmann at the Bayer pharmaceutical company. From 1898 to 1910 heroin was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. By 1902 sales made up 5 percent of the company's profits. Oxycodone was introduced by Bayer in 1916 and promoted as a less-addictive analgesic. A range of synthetic opioids such as methadone in 1937 and fentanyl in the late 1950s have been introduced. During the American Civil War the Union Army used 175,000 lb of opium tincture and powder. US president William Henry Harrison was treated with opium in 1841.

• 3. Imperial Trade Wars And Prohibition

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  The earliest clear description of the use of opium as a recreational drug in China came from Xu Boling who wrote in 1483 that it was mainly used to aid masculinity. Opium smoking began as a privilege of the elite and remained a great luxury into the early 19th century. In 1729 the Qing Yongzheng Emperor officially prohibited the sale of opium except for a small amount for medicinal purposes. The ban punished sellers and opium den keepers but not users of the drug. Opium was banned completely in 1799 and this prohibition continued until 1860. British traders resorted to trade in opium as a high-value commodity for which China was not self-sufficient. In 1838 the Chinese Commissioner Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 chests of opium in Guangzhou. This led to the First Opium War initiated by Britain in 1840. The British won Hong Kong and trade concessions in the first of a series of Unequal Treaties. By 1905 an estimated 25 percent of the male population were regular consumers of the drug. In 1906 41,000 tons were produced but because 39,000 tons of that year's opium were consumed in China overall usage in the rest of the world was much lower.

• 4. The Modern Production Landscape

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  In November 2023 a U.N report showed that in the entirety of Afghanistan poppy cultivation dropped by over 95%. This removed it from its place as being the world's largest opium producer. In 2002 the price for one kilogram of opium was $100 for the farmer and $1,000 for purchasers in Afghanistan. In late 2004 the U.S. government estimated that 206,000 hectares were under poppy cultivation yielding 4,200 metric tons of opium. For farmers the crop can be up to ten times more profitable than wheat. In 2006 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated production to have risen 59 percent to 8,600 tons in Afghanistan. A year later after American and British troops invaded Afghanistan land under cultivation leapt back to 104,000 hectares. In 2023 Burma overtook Afghanistan and became the world's largest producer of opium producing 1080 metric tones according the UN Southeast Asia Opium Survey report. Worldwide production in 2006 was 6610 tonnes about one-fifth the level of production in 1906.

• 5. Chemical Processing And Derivatives

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  The traditional labor-intensive method of obtaining the latex is to scratch the immature seed pods by hand. The latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dehydrated. One acre harvested in this way can produce three to five kilograms of raw opium. Crude laboratories in the field are capable of refining opium into morphine base by a simple acid-base extraction. Morphine is converted into heroin by a simple chemical reaction with acetic anhydride followed by purification. Heroin is widely preferred because of increased potency. One study in postaddicts found heroin to be approximately 2.2 times more potent than morphine by weight. Especially in Mexican production opium may be converted directly to black tar heroin in a simplified procedure. This form predominates in the U.S. west of the Mississippi. A single poppy seed roll usually did not produce a positive drug test but a positive result was observed from eating two rolls. A slice of poppy seed cake containing nearly five grams of seeds per slice produced positive results for 24 hours. On the 30th of November 1998 the standard cutoff was increased to 2000 nanograms per milliliter.