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Opium was probably first used about 6 000 years ago, and is believed to be native to the Western Mediterranean area, although it no longer grows wild there. Both the Greeks and Romans used it as a medicine, generally as a pain killer. Around the year 600 AD Arab traders brought opium to China and to India, where it was later discovered by the English in the seventeenth century. The English became deeply involved in the opium business, growing it in India and selling it in China in return for spices and silk. Around 1700 people began smoking a mixture of opium and tobacco, called madak, in the East Indies. In 1729 the Chinese Emperor Yung Chen prohibited both the sale of opium and the operation of smoking houses. Opium from Bengal, in India, continued to enter China despite the 1729 edict. By the 1830s, the English had one of the largest drug operations in the history of mankind. After 1836 the selling of opium was completely illegal in China, and the Chinese government began to crack down on opium traders and opium dens. Because of this, relations between Britain and China were not good. In the end of 1839 the Opium War began, which China lost, as they did not have the technology necessary to fight against the British. In 1842 the two countries signed the Treaty of Nanking, which placed no restrictions on British trade. By the end of the nineteenth century, opium was available in Europe and North America, and opium addiction was a worldwide problem. In the United States, there were no laws against the use or distribution of opium until the early twentieth century. Opium was included in many medicines, but not necessarily in the labels. In 1914 the Harrison Narcotics Act outlawed opiates in the United States. At that time opium was very popular in the US, and opium smuggling became a huge problem. After World War II, heroin was the drug with the most addicted users and by 1970 the United States had an estimated half a million heroin addicts. Opium is resin from the Opium Poppy, Papaver somniferum L., an annual herb that can grow up to one or one and a half meters tall and may have red, pink, purple, or white flowers. Opium is harvested from the unripened seed pods. The opium poppy is grown in Bulgaria, Greece, Iran, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, India, China, Vietnam, and Mexico. Most illegal opium comes from south eastern Asia, where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet, an area which is called the “Golden Triangle.” In 1997 the main producers of heroin were Burma and Afghanistan. To harvest opium, the seed pods of the opium poppy are scored on the outside, so that the poppy’s resin will ooze out. Usually this is done in the evening, and the next day the workers come back and scrape the hardened resin off of the seed pods. This is raw opium. It is collected into lumps and sent to factories for its initial processing. At the factories its morphine content is tested, then batches which have different contents are mixed, so that all of the raw opium has about the same morphine content. The opium is pressed into round, flattened cakes, weighing about five kilos, with a morphine content of nine to twelve percent, and then exported. Raw opium is a sticky or hard dark brown substance, which may be shaped into bricks. It grows brittle and hard as it ages. Some of opium’s street names are ah-pen-yen, noir(e), hop or O. Raw opium can be smoked, chewed or eaten. Prepared opium is also a sticky brown substance, which may be shaped into sticks about the same size and shape as a cigarette. The street names of this type of prepared opium are Chandu or sukhteh. To prepare it for smoking the opium is mixed with twice the amount of water, and then heated and stirred so the water evaporates. Foam which forms during the evaporation is skimmed off. The thick residue which remains is roasted over a charcoal fire of 200 degrees C and the remains are dissolved in water and filtered. Then the filtrate is boiled down to a syrup. After cooling, the extract is vigorously stirred to produce a foam and characteristic aroma is obtained, which is smoked in special pipes. From raw opium several drugs are prepared, such as codeine, morphine, thebaine, papaverine and noscapine (narcotine). Morphine is sold as oral solutions (Roxanol), sustained release tablets, suppositories, and injectable preparations. It may be taken orally, subcutaneously (skin-popping), intramuscularly, or intravenously (mainlining). Most addicts prefer to take morphine intravenously. Most codeine in the United States is produced from morphine, and usually taken as tablets, where it is often mixed with aspirin or tylenol. Codeine is used medically for mild relief and also as a cough suppressant. Thebaine is not a depressant like codeine or morphine, though it has a similar chemical structure to both of them. It is not used therpeutically, but is used to make codeine and other drugs. Heroin is the main street drug derived from opium. It is illegal in the United States but is used to treat severe pain in the United Kingdom and other countries. Heroin is a semi-synthetic drug and was first synthesized from morphine in 1874, and become illegal with the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. Heroin is known on the street as smack, junk, skag, brown sugar, boy, joy powder, white lady, white stuff, Hairy, Harry, dope, horse, skunk, H, body bag, and homicide. It is manufactured in remote laboratories and pressed into bricks for bulk shipment to countries like the United States. Smaller amounts are smuggled by couriers who swallow latex balloons filled with heroin before boarding commercial airlines. Pure heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste, however when it is sold it is often cut with other white powders, such as sugars, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Heroin purity ranges from one percent to ninety-eight percent, with an average in the United States of thirty five percent. Mexican heroin is also popular in the western United States. It is dark in color and often sticky, like tar, and has a purity from twenty to eighty percent. Heroin is usually injected, but can also be inhaled (chasing the dragon), sniffed/snorted or smoked. At low doses, heroin causes a dreamlike state of intoxication and side effects such as constricted pupils, reduced appetite, constipation, low body temperature, itching, sweating, and stupor. At higher doses, these effects increase, along with depressant effects on breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. At very high doses, it causes death. A heroin high lasts from five to thirty minutes, but users often shoot up repeatedly to keep themselves high for longer amounts of time. Because the purity of heroin varies so much, the risk of accidental overdose is very high. Heroin is also very addictive. Heroin is also usually injected, so there are additional risks caused by using needles, bacterial and HIV infection, collapsed veins and hepatitis. In 1997 a National Household Survey was released which reported 2.44 million Americans had tried heroin, and 216 000 had used it in the last 30 days.
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