Opium - Overview
Overview
Archaeologists have found evidence of opium poppy cultivation dating back more than 6, 000 years. As early as 4, 000 BCE, the plant was grown in the Fertile Crescent, an area then known as Mesopotamia. The region is now the countries of Iran and Iraq. Poppy seeds and seed pods have been found in Stone Age deposits in Switzerland. The ancient Sumerians called the plant hul gil, or "joy plant." A document that survives from the Egyptian city of Thebes, written in 1552 BCE, lists more than 700 medicinal uses for opium.
It is likely that opium has always been grown for its mind-altering properties, but it is important to note that the plant provides food as well. The small black poppy seeds on the top of bagels and cakes come from the plant, and poppy seed oil is also used in cooking. In his book Illegal Drugs: A Complete Guide to Their History, Chemistry, Use and Abuse, Paul M. Gahlinger noted that eating poppy seeds can result in positive drug tests for morphine in the urine. However, the seeds do not contain enough opium to produce a high, no matter how many one consumes.
Known and Used Worldwide
At some point deep in human history, farmers learned to cut the ripening poppy pods. This allows the sap to flow out and harden into a dark-colored gum. That gum is raw opium.
Opium use was widespread in ancient Greece and Rome. In his 800 BCE poem The Odyssey, Homer described a medicine called nepenthe that could erase pain as well as the sorrow of grief. These ancient peoples credited certain gods with showing humankind the wonders of opium. The Greek god Morpheus, god of dreams, is often depicted in statues sleeping among poppy flowers.
Ancient cultures also knew of the drug's dangers. The Romans used opium as a poison, recognizing that an overdose could cause a victim to stop breathing. Legend says that the famous General Hannibal (247 BCE–c. 183 BCE) used opium to commit suicide.
When trade routes were established between the Middle East and Asia in the fifth century CE, opium made its way into the Far East. The cultures there began to grow it for its painkilling effects, and the plant thrived in many areas of Western Asia. Europeans knew opium from the cultural influences of the Greeks and Romans. Christopher Columbus was instructed to find new sources of the plant when he set sail in 1492. A more widespread use of the drug in Europe dates from 1524, when Swiss doctor Paracelsus (1493–1541) mixed opium with alcohol and named the resulting product laudanum, Latin for "to be praised." One of opium's drawbacks as a medicine was its bitter, unpleasant taste. Mixing the drug with wine, spices, and sweeteners made its taste more tolerable, which meant more people started using it. It remained in the mainstream until the twentieth century.
Opium Pipes and Patent Medicines
Columbus did not discover opium in the Americas. However, he did learn about tobacco and the pipes used to smoke it from the native peoples he met. He returned to Europe with both the pipes and the tobacco. Within 100 years, Europeans had taken to both. It is likely that opium had been smoked in the Eastern Hemisphere prior to the introduction of the Native American-style pipe.
However, the long stem typical of American pipes made smoking opium a more pleasant experience by dulling the harshness of the
smoke. Users of smoked opium quickly learned that this method of taking the drug heightened the euphoria—and hastened dependenceWhen a user has a physical or psychological need to take a certain substance in order to function..
Opium addiction developed in various ways on different continents. In Europe and America, people ate opium or became dependent on patent medicines that mixed opium with alcohol, sugary syrups, or camphor (known as paregoric today). Patent medicines, including tonics and elixirs, contained "secret" ingredients and promised to cure various diseases. They were also called "cure all" medicines, but most failed to deliver the promised cure.
A Different Type of Drug War
In the Far East, particularly China, the smoking of refined opium became a public health problem as early as 1746. By the 1830s, crime had become widespread in the nation as its men, in particular, sought out the drug. Families starved when their
providers fell victim to addiction. In response, the Chinese government banned the use and importation of opium.
This ban angered the British, who believed they already had a trade imbalance with China. The Chinese exported much tea to Great Britain and America, so the British wanted China to buy their opium in return. When China refused to allow opium imports, the British declared war and sailed their military fleet to Canton, arriving in June of 1840.
Thus began the first of two "Opium Wars," known in Great Britain as "The War for Free Trade." The conflicts occurred from 1839 through 1842 and again from 1856 to 1860. When the wars ended, the combination of peasant rebellion and British military might had brought China to its knees.
Gahlinger estimates that by 1900, a quarter of the Chinese population—and half of all its adult males—were addicted to smoked opium. Those who did not fall victim to the drug became bitter toward Western capitalism and its emphasis on private ownership, free trade, and competition. The Chinese believed the West had encouraged the opium epidemic. Their bitterness played no small role in China's move toward communism in the twentieth century. In the communist system of government, the means of production are owned by the state.
Opium Dens
Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese laborers came to the United States to help build railroads in the Western states. Some of these immigrants brought their opium habits with them. Opium "dens" began to spring up around the country, especially in the big cities. Opium dens were usually darkly lit establishments where people went to use the drug. Many dens were set up in the Chinatown section of major cities, but were visited by people of various ethnicities. By the 1890s, the practice of smoking opium in dens had spread, especially among younger American men.
Refinements in the pipe led to the practice of reclining on boards or sofas on one hip while smoking or experiencing the effects of the drug. This practice gave birth to the phrase "on the hip," meaning someone with an opium habit. The phrase was shortened in the twentieth century to "hip," and the term is still used in 2005 to describe someone who is adventurous and perhaps a bit too willing to break the rules. The word "hippie" also has its origin from the way opium was smoked in dens.
Addiction on the Rise in the 1800s and 1900s
As the twentieth century dawned in the United States, civic leaders came to realize that the country had its own drug problem. By one estimate, New York City had more than 300 opium dens. Others pointed to the overuse of then-legal medicines that contained variations of opium—either heroin, codeine, or morphine. It was actually possible to buy a "soothing syrup" for fussy infants that contained opiatesAny drug derived from the opium poppy or synthetically produced to mimic the effects of the opium poppy; opiates tend to decrease restlessness, bring on sleep, and relieve pain.. Children also became addicted to the medicines and sometimes died of an overdose.
The Western world was not ignorant of the dangers posed by opium. As early as 1821, British writer Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859) described the horrors of addiction and withdrawal in his book Confessions of an English Opium Eater. The isolation of morphine from its parent substance led to widespread addiction in the soldiers who returned from the American Civil War (1861–1865). Many soldiers were given morphine to ease injuries they received in battle. Later, the introduction of heroin as an
over-the-counter remedy in 1898 made a bad situation worse. People addicted to opium and morphine were encouraged to take heroin as a "cure"—and found themselves more deeply addicted than ever. By 1900, reformers such as Dr. Hamilton Wright were calling for an international agreement on regulation of the. narcoticsA painkiller that may become habit-forming; in a broader sense, any illegally purchased drug. trade.
The first in a series of international conventions on the then-legal trade of opium occurred February 1, 1909, in Shanghai, China. The thirteen countries that attended the International Opium Commission could not agree on how best to regulate the growth, sale, and distribution of opium and its by-products. A second conference, held on January 23, 1912, in The Hague in the Netherlands, was only slightly more successful. Participating countries signed an agreement requiring each country to "try to" control the trade of narcotics, including not only opium, but also cocaine. (An entry for cocaine is available in this encyclopedia.)
The United States Takes Further Action
Within its own borders, the United States had already taken steps to stop opium smoking. The Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 made the importation of opium illegal, except for legal pharmaceutical use. Five years later, the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 put an end to over-the-counter patent ("cure-all") medicines containing opiates and made it more difficult to obtain substances such as heroin and morphine from doctors. These two laws, combined with an atmosphere of discrimination against Asian Americans, effectively curbed the use of smoked opium in dens.
In 1970 the U.S. Controlled Substances Act named opium a Schedule II drug. This means that it has some valid medical uses but also has the potential for misuse and addiction. In Europe and the United States, the vast majority of opium appeared on the street in its alternate forms—morphine, codeine, or heroin. These other opium-based products are all still abused in America today, while pure opium abuse only occurs in some minority populations of Southeast Asian origin. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) recorded more than 82, 000 emergency room visits due to drug abuse in 2000—only 167 of these were for opium or opium combined with other drugs. There was no mention of opium-related emergency department visits in the DAWN 2003 interim report, which featured the latest information available as of August 2005. Opium use has largely been replaced by heroin use in the United States. When opium is abused, it is usually mixed with other drugs.
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