History Of Opium In The Odyssey

A mixture of opium and alcohol was designed back in 1680. However this formula would not surface and be marketed until the 1900's by the Bayer company in Germany as a method to combat the cough associated along with Tuberculosis. It was also used as a method to treat morphine addictions, that is until it was discovered that heroin itself was extremely

Moreover, another dangerous substance that is consumer is opium. Opium is an addictive drug that is taken from a poppy plant. At first, this drug is used as a narcotic in medicine as an anesthetic as the dangers associated with it are outweighed from the medicinal properties. The prohibition of opium originated from foreign disputes. Professor David F. Musto wrote that “Americans had quickly associated smoking opium with Chinese immigrants who arrive after the Civil War to work on railroad construction. This association was of the earliest examples of a powerful theme in American perception of

Drug use has surrounded us as a species since the stone age. The first references of alcohol were found within ancient Chinese civilizations, which date to roughly 9,000 years ago (McGovern, et al.). The original sources for these alcohols were rice and millet. One of the first surgical anesthetics used was opium. It is believed that some of the first Sumerian clay tablets contained basic prescriptions of opium for pain relief. Many Arabic cultures also used opium for diseases and issues relating to gastrointestinal issues and eye abnormalities (McGovern, et al.). Whether drugs were used for recreational purposes or for medicinal uses is left in the history.

Throughout history men and women have been consuming psychotrophic substances for various purposes, including for relaxation, to achieve a state of euphoria, or to alter consciousness in order to find spiritual enlightenment. References to the opium poppy, which has been a major source of these psychotrophic substances, have been discovered in writings as far back as that of the Sumerians in 3300BC (Fernandez 1998:3). Opium has been used in various forms over the centuries for medicinal in addition to recreational purposes.

The earliest form of painkillers was first created in the 16th century where people used laudanum or opium prepared in alcoholic solution as pain relivers. In the early 19th century, people extracted morphine from old opium poppy plants and this form of painkiller was most commonly used in the American Civil War. As Morphine was found to be very addictive, chemists in the 1870s produced heroin that did not turn out to be a success as it was proved to be more addictive than morphine. Many other synthetic opiates such as Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet were produced respectively in 1984, 1995 and 1999. However, these synthetic opiates could only be given if prescribed by a doctor as they could also be addictive. There were also other options of

Heroin Addiction in Australia. There are many fact of this devastated addiction which lead a person to die or rather hope to. Heroin is an opiate drug which belongs to morphine, and morphine itself obtained from the opium poppy plant and this plant called papaver somniferum which means a hypnotic plant, also this plant grows in many countries such as Afghanistan, India, Australia, and China, additionally in 1803 heroin first discovered, and the reason why it has discovered is to help patients to kill the pain, so its name was a painkiller. (Live Science 2015) In addition, according to National Institute in Drug Abuse (2014) heroin is a highly chronic addictive drug that contains morphine which is from a plant called opium poppy that belongs

Drugs first surfaced in the late 1880’s with Opium. Opium at the time was the most in demand drug choice. Opium comes from a flower called, “Opium Poppy”, people would take the “fruit” of the flower, which was the actual opium and let it dry up and then it was either; smoked, injected, eaten or put in drinks. When the drug effects kicks it the user would start

Opium is the dried, condensed juice of a poppy, Papaver somniferous that has a narcotic, soporific, analgesic, and astringent effect and contains morphine, codeine, papaverine, and other alkaloids used in medicine in their isolated or derived forms: a narcotic substance, poisonous in large doses. Opium is a drug that is used to escape or hinder one’s reality. Drugs play an essential role in maintaining, a well-ordered society in Brave New World. In the book, Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1932 had many themes that predicted what’s going on in today’s society. One of these topics is the art of medicine, narrowed down to painkillers which lead to an opium epidemic.

The earliest reference to opium growth and use is in 3,400 B.C. when the opium poppy was

It is necessary to provide a little background on the primary drug being discussed, heroin. Opium is not a new drug; it has been used in eastern cultures as far back as the Neolithic age. It was used then similarly as other opium based drugs today are used to control pain. Opium could be taken orally or by smoking it, both produce similar effects.

Americans discovered the wonder drug, opium, in mid-18th to late 19th century. Birth was given to a new kind of danger and addiction that escalated at a fast rate. The southeast population that moved to the United States during the California Gold Rush not only came for the opportunity and hope of striking gold but along with this hope introduced opium as a long living problem. The drug was primarily named, “God’s Own Medicine” as it treated the president of the time, William Henry Harrison, perfected menstrual problems for women, and was used in the American Civil War as a means of relieving the pain of soldiers. The smoking of

Cultivation of the poppy plant for harvest of its seeds can be traced as far back as 3400 B.C. (1.) Sumerians in lower Mesopotamia referred to the opium in the seed capsules “gil,” meaning joy, and the poppy “hul gil,” plant of joy. From Sumeria, the plant of joy was introduced to Europe. Around 460 – 357 B.C., Hippocrates, “The Father of Medicine”, acknowledged opium’s usefulness as a narcotic and styptic in treating internal diseases, diseases of women, and epidemics.

Amazed and intrigued by the power of opium in Hong Kong Chinese society and to the colonial government, I began to research and found that massive works have done on the topic of opium in different fields, among which there are history of politics, economy, opium wars and international relations. Whereas the paucity of a social cultural description of opium within Hong Kong caused my attention and induced me into further investigation.

Opium was obtained from the anti-drug office of Police and GC-mass spectrometry was used to analysis the opium. The obtained opium composed of about 30% alkaloids (morphine 15%, thebaine 4.4%, codeine 5.2% and papaverine 3.7%,) and the remainder consisted of non- alkaloidal organic and non-organic substances with 15.5% water

Heroin is not new. In fact, the first growth and cultivation of opium dates back to around 3400 B.C. during the ancient Mesopotamian age. Tom Carnwath briefly discusses the origin of this now over-powering substance in his book “Heroin Century”. Carnwarth mentions that at one point in history even the Romans used it for tinctures, tablets, poultices, and lozenges. It wasn’t consistently being used until the sixteenth-century when physician Paracelsus began to prescribe it to his patients as he