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Colten Rogers
Professor Gustavo Ibarra
Life, Society and drugs
28 March, 2012
Papaver somniferum; the scientific name given to the poppy plant opium originates
from. The poppy plant has been used for centuries and opium is in no way a new type of drug.
It has been used in many ways including as a medicine and as a poison. It is also the base drug
which makes many modern drugs such as heroin and morphine. Opium has proven to be an
important and dangerous drug to many empires and nations throughout history, as well as in
today’s world.
Opium is an ancient drug. Some archeological finds have found poppy seeds, in Neolithic
burial sites dating back to 4200 BCE. The first recorded use of poppies was in 3400 BCE, during
the reign of the Sumerian empire. They called the plant Hul Gil, which means the joy plant.
From the Sumerians, the use of opium spread to the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the
Egyptians. These ancient civilizations used opium as a poison, but also as a medicine.
As was stated above, opium comes from the poppy plant. More specific though, the
opium comes from the bulb of the poppy plant after it has flowered. To get the opium from
inside the bulb, it is lightly scraped with a sharp blade, making an incision in the bulb. After the
incision is made in the bulb, the juice that slowly drips out of the bulb is opium. After collection,
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the opium is usually manufactured into other more potent drugs like morphine or heroin, as
well as into other drugs.
Pure opium can be smoked, injected, or eaten orally. It is a depressant drug, which
means that it slows down the body. Opium puts the user in a state of euphoria, which is a
pleasant state of intense well-being and happiness. Along with the euphoria, opium causes the
body to relax, making a person’s basic functions slow, such as the respiratory system, and heart
rate. The other short term effects of opium are numbness and relief to pain, hindered
coordination, impaired judgment, and severe constipation. Although opium has some negative
side effects, it also has some positive ones. Opium has medical purposes which include, pain
relief, and relief of diarrhea. Today though, medically used opium is usually made into thebaine,
morphine, and codeine, which are more powerful versions of opium.
Long term use of opium can cause a user to develop a tolerance and dependence on the
drug. This is especially dangerous because when a person needs more opium to get high, they
often overdose and risk death. This is because when too much opium is used, it causes
breathing to slow until they stop breathing all together. Other dangerous effects of using opium
are weight loss. A person using opium will lose the desire to eat thus losing weight. It is also
really hard for long time users to quit, because the symptoms of opium withdrawal are very
strong. The strong negative effects of opium have caused many problems within the last two
centuries.
The use of pure opium has caused many problems through history. One example is of
the opium wars between Britain and China during the early 1800’s. During this time, Britain
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began trading opium with china, in return for silk and tea. As an increase in Chinese males
began using opium, the use of the drug got out of control. “As the habit of smoking opium
spread from the idle rich to ninety per cent of all Chinese males under the age of forty in the
country's coastal regions, business activity was much reduced, the civil service ground to a halt,
and the standard of living fell” (Allingham). As a result of 90% of working age males were using
opium and China began to crumble from within. Because so many people were addicted to
opium, life in China began to deteriorate as more and more opium was purchased from the
British. It was estimated by a British physician that twelve million Chinese men were addicted
to opium (Allingham). To counter the spread of the drug in China, Dao guang, the emperor of
china, made opium illegal and put special commissioner Lin Ze-xu, in charge of stifling opium in
China. His work wasn’t easy though, because the sale of opium had turned into a black market
operation within the Chinese trade port.
When a crackdown on opium began, and the only trade port in China closed, the British
got angry and invaded China. Because nearly all the army was an opium addict however, the
British army quickly steamrolled through the Chinese defenses and won the war in two years.
After the defeat, China was forced to open up several trade ports, and they lost a lot of their
money.
Opium became a major problem for eighteenth century china, and is still problematic in
today’s world. It is currently causing many problems in Afghanistan. In 1979 the Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan, and opium was introduced to the farmers. Since then, opium both legal
and illegal has been a major export of Afghanistan. Since the Soviet Union, the only time opium
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wasn’t cultivated was in 2001 when the Taliban took control and banned the growth of
poppies. After they were kicked out of government, opium began flowing out of Afghanistan,
and became the largest exporter of opium in the world. Since then, multiple international aid
agencies have been trying to eradicate poppy by giving the farmers other types of work. Today,
they continue to try to eradicate opium from Afghanistan, but its slow moving work. There is a
lot of corruption within the government which makes the process difficult.
Along with the sale of opium, it is also used by many poor Afghan farmers for its pain
relieving effects. The addictive properties of the drug make many of the farmers addicted to it
though. It is becoming a serious problem for Afghanistan. In a CNN news article, they talked
about this very problem. It says that many poor Afghans are feeding lumps of opium to their
children. Talking about her son one mother said “If I don't give him opium he doesn't sleep,"
she says. "And he doesn't let me work” (Damon). Because the people don’t have money for
medicine, they use the opium Afghanistan has everywhere. "We give the children opium
whenever they get sick as well," she says, crouching over her loom” (Damon). They use opium
for every ailment they have. This in turn makes them addicted to the drug. The report also says
that the whole extended family is addicted to opium.
One problem that Afghanistan is starting to have more and more of are kidnaps. When a
poor farmer needs money, he gets it from growing opium. They get the money and opium to
grow from the opium smugglers. When their opium fields are destroyed however, they have no
way of paying for the opium that was destroyed. The smugglers will take family members of the
farmers for payment. These family members include children. Young boys and girls, ages three
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maybe four and up are taken as payment for the destroyed opium. They are then taken and
sold as wives, and sex slaves/ laborers. The farmers have little choice in the matter. They
cannot pay the smugglers, and if they refuse to pay or give up their children, they are killed and
then the children and family members are taken anyways. The farmers have no choice but to
give up their children and hope they can get the money to buy them back later. That is their
only hope. It is a really bad business to go into if the government decides to destroy the opium
fields. The only way to stop eradication is to pay either the Taliban for protection, depending on
location, or pay off the police. Recently however, the United States gave up on eradication and
is now trying something else. Hopefully it works and these kind of kidnappings can stop.
Although opium is mostly a problem in less developed countries, its abuse is still
prevalent in the United States. Peter Thompson, a writer had been doing drugs for a long time.
He started out learning how to make mead from the local library when he was twelve. From
there he went to cough syrup and pain medications. Later he found poppy bulbs he could buy
from eBay. After finding the bulbs he was hooked. In the end, everything important in his life
disappeared, as poppy juice became the only important thing in his life. He left his wife, went to
a hotel, and overdosed on the poppies. Luckily enough for him, he didn’t die and quit using the
poppies.
The use of opium has been a part of history since prehistoric times, and is still in use
today. It has caused many problems for several different countries and nations. Although
opium can be used as a medicine, it is also a dangerous potentially life threatening drug if used
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incorrectly. Opium is an important drug in both times past and today, and will still be around in
the future.
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Works Cited
Allingham, Philip V. “England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60.” Victorian Web. 24 Jun.
2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Damon, Arwa. “Afghan infants fed pure opium.” CNN. 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Draper, Robert. “Opium Wars: A key step to securing peace will be to wean Afghan farmers off
growing poppies.” National Geographic. Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
“Effects of Opium.” Effectsofopium.com. 6 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Nairobi. “In-depth: Bitter-Sweet Harvest: Afghanistan's New War: AFGHANISTAN: Chronology of
opium through history.” IRIN. 2 Aug. 2004. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
Quraishi, Najibullah. “Opium Brides.” PBS. 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 April. 2012.
Thompson, Peter. “Confessions of an eBay opium addict: Looking for drugs on the cheap, a
writer found poppy pods available on the Web. He also found himself hooked.” Tucson
Weekly. 7 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
“tincture of opium liquid – oral.” MedicineNet.com. Web. 31 Mar. 2012.