See also: Opium (homonymy)

The opium is a preparation Psychotrope obtained starting from latex of the soporific Pavot. Its effects cause in particular a Somnolence in the consumer.

History

The Sumérien S knew already the effects of opium as testify some to the engraved shelves going back to 3000 years before J.C and of the vestiges of the Neolithic suggests already cultures of soporific Pavot near the villages.

The image of the capsule of the poppy, a Enthéogène , was an attribute of the gods, well before opium is extracted from its milky latex. To the gallery of the reliefs Assyrian S with the Metropolitan Museum of New York, a winged divinity of a palate of Assurnazirpal II with Nimrud, gone back to -879, carries a bouquet of capsules of poppy (prudently described by the museum like grenades).

Opium was an object of Commerce during centuries for its effects Sédatif S. It was well-known in the ancient Greece under the name of opion (“juice of poppy”) whose the current Latinized name is derived and already at the time the doctors warned against the potential abuses. to 16% of the total. It joined and active receivers µ-opioïdes in the Cerveau, the Spinal-cord and the Ventre.

A regular consumption, even for few days, leads to a tolerance and possibly to a physical dependence, with a syndrome of lack characteristic and unpleasant when proportioning is brutally reduced.

Use

It can be used in the form of Parégorique to treat the Diarrhée.

Opium can be consumed in manner eaten or drunk of decoction but its use more the current consists in being smoked, often using a Pipe (where the ball of opium is preheated while being pricked on a needle), sometimes mixed with Tabac.

Its consumption induces a Myosis, a fall of the respiratory amplitude, a Hypotension and can cause nausea S or Vomissement S.

Opium allows also the legal production of Morphine. It allows also the illegal production of heroin and the abuses Drogue come more from its derivatives opium itself.

Manufacture

It is extracted from the capsule inflated with its maximum but not yet become full ripe of the soporific Pavot ( Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum ). To collect opium, one incises the Péricarpe capsules maturing after the fall of the petals with a knife with one or more blades and forms varied according to the areas of the world. The incision exudes a latex white, milky, which dries in a brown resin. Lastly, to collect the dried resin which constitutes rough opium, one scrapes the capsules using a broad curved blade. This one must remain wet so that the latex does not accumulate there with excess.

It is of this latex, once dried which one extracts the Morphine which is used as a basis for the heroin. Heroin is appeared as a white or brown powder.

Economic aspects and policies

The opium used for the Drug company (extraction of the Morphine) comes from the India S where there exist licit cultures intended for this use.

Burma

Opium is introduced there by ethnic minorities come from China which make of it a traditional use and whose production remains reduced.

In 1949, the nationalist forces of the Kuomintang (KMT), overcome by the Communiste S Chinese take refuge in what it is current to call the Triangle of gold and control as of 1954 the border with China and the Thailand obliging the local tribes to pour to them a Impôt in the form of opium.

Random links:

Douarnenez | John Hewitt | Echidna (kind) | Cigar-lighter | Act of Union (1536)