The Use Of Opiates During The 17th And 18th Century

Opium came from opium poppy seeds, which were grown and sold under British ruling in India. The British East India Company developed a monopoly which took place in effectively growing opium and making profits and/or trading it with the Chinese in exchange for their premium good such as silk, porcelain, and tea. According to Memorials on the Legalization and Elimination of Opium by Xu Naiji and Yuan Yulin, they explained how the rise of opium prompted many debts and death around China. Opium became an addiction for many, from the poor to officials in government positions. Cutting off all access of trading opium would’ve started issues in the trading network, not just with Britain but with the Western countries as well. Instead of passing laws to completely ban opium, they reverted to only permitting the barbarian merchants to import opium to pay duty as a medication. This made it unacceptable for money to be involved with the product. According to Xu Naiji, smokers of opium were lazy, with no purpose in life and if they were caught smoking it, the only punishment was getting the opium confiscated. However, if any officer, scholar, or soldier were found smoking opium, the would be immediately dismissed from public employ. Yuan Yulin, a minister, believes that the expansion of opium is the government’s fault, being that they cannot decipher right from wrong; he thought it was unfair that prohibition of smoking opium only applied to the officers of the government, scholars, and military but not the common people. The British capitalized on the effects of opium, because many of China’s population were going to put forth their money, goods, etc. for

Heroin, a white powder, was created in 1874, and was sold as a safe substitute for morphine. However, it was discovered that heroin produced a quick dependency in people. Heroin and other opiates were made illegal in 1920 as part of the Dangerous Drugs Act. Still today, however, Heroin is illegally manufactured and imported, largely from the Indian sub-continent.

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

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

There is a general agreement between many theorist, scientists and Pharmacologists that the Sumerians cultivated poppies and prepared opium from them in the third millennium B.C. (Brownstein 1) Opium and other drugs that derived from the poppy plant were widely used in religious practices for its euphoric properties. However, Opiates have been proven to have addictive qualities and toxic effects on the human body. This did not stop the wide spread demand for the drug. Since those early accounts of opioid use and addiction, the drug has traveled through the Middle East, Asia, and Europe like a plague and is currently a nationwide epidemic in the United States and has been for some time now.

Opium has been been around forever, but up until a century ago, it was seen as a gift from God. Used by sixteenth-century physicians and prescribed to patients, physicians praised that opium “...took away grief, fear, and anxiety”(Carnwath and Smith 5) Regrettably, as doctors consistently prescribed the drug, it became popular as an alternative for smoking cocaine, and heroin spread throughout America in the 1920s and 1930s (Courtwright 85).

For at least two centuries different morphine and opium derived tinctures were sold by various pharmaceutical companies. It wasn’t until 1898 when a morphine derived cough suppressant named heroin was created that a problem with such opiates arose. Within a short time heroin's addictive nature affected around three hundred thousand people in the U.S. Soon opiate based medications would be banned unless for medical use. In 1916 two German Scientist synthesized what they thought was a non-addictive replacement for narcotics like heroin. This drug would be known as oxycodone. Oxycodone is an odorless, white, crystalline powder derived from the opium alkaloid, thebaine. Its molecular formula is C18 H21NO4. Although it was brought to America in 1939, it wasn’t until 1950 that it became a popular drug for use. This happened when it was combined with aspirin into Percodan which quickly became a highly abused drug. However, people would still frequently look toward oxycodone for the treatment of chronic pain. 1966 was a big year for Purdue Pharma when they released OxyContin, a pure oxycodone tablet with a time release base which would hopefully prevent abuse. This drug soon earned the nickname “Hillbilly Heroin” and a mass breakout of overdoses and arrests

A major cause of depression, and many more problems, is opiate drugs. The drugs can affect the body in many ways. Another leading problem is the progressive rates of doctor/medical abuse. Opiates are used worldwide, causing higher rates and more comparison. They are used mainly for a pain relief drug, but people abuse them and use them in many other ways to get a high off of. When used correctly, opiates are a very useful drug, but people abuse their use causing many problems in their bodies and everyday challenges.

The history of substance abuse is full of irony. The poppy, a beautiful flower, is the source of opium, a raw pain-killing substance regularly cultivated and harvested in the East, where it was widely used. Tragically, Europe and America imported the drug and adopted its unregulated use. Though legal, the opium dens of the early 19th century certainly oppressed the lives of the poor, taking what little money they had and offering a dangerous environment in which to dream drug induced dreams.

Opiates naturally have analgesic (pain relieving) and antitussive (cough prevention) properties. These characteristics made opioids a precursor to modern medicine. While the opium poppy was being cultivated and smoked in China and India, the potency of opium was still on the rise.

The poppy plant is indigenous to parts of Southeast Asia and the raw substance harvested from the flower of the poppy plant called opium. Opium had been commonly smoked for recreational use in Asia for at least 1000 years and was socially acceptable. About 200 years ago addiction became a problem in China and following World War II China strictly limited access to opium. After the restriction on opium, its usage decreased while at the same time, taking its place was the more refined heroin. The opium is crudely refined into the common pain reliever known as morphine. Morphine is then further refined the substance called heroin which was also smoked. Smoking heroin also known as “Chasing the dragon” and poor working class people were drawn to this to help them cope with the harsh realities of their wretched living conditions. Smoking opium required complicated and bulky equipment while heroin did not require such devices, and the limited access to needles, smoking heroin was the most common method at the time (Lam, 1997; PBS, 1998). Once a person is addicted to heroin it can cause them to want nothing but to find more heroin by whatever means possible (Heroin Facts,

Essentially, the British purchased cotton from India, made textiles and sold it back to India, permitting the British to purchase an abundant amount of opium. This allowed them to smuggle the narcotic into China’s isolated land. Through this new method of trading, opium was steadily flowing into China and into its people, not only as a medicine, but as a recreational drug. Since this particular drug became well-known within China, a sudden increase in demand of this narcotic created a new development in the way to administer this drug: new smoking technique, which eventually made opium not only a medicine or a lousy recreational drug, but a highly-used and effective drug that affected nearly every citizen in China. According to Coburn, since the supply and usage of the opium increased exponentially, opium became a part of the daily lives of the Chinese where “much of the lower-class work force with one-third of

Opiates are historical and natural drugs. It influenced ancient Mediterranean culture, therefore people frequent used in dailylife. On the other hand, opiates had strong effects for neuron system. Ancient people would addict opiates if they took huge amounts of this drug in the short time. Many authors, philosophers, and plant specialists praised opiates for inducing sleep and reliving pains. However, they earned use of opiates for ancient people because opiates were dangerous. It was common to use opiates for a way of commit suicide at this time. Opiates had both benefits and issues. It was depend on how people wanted to use this drug. People have been used opiates in modern world. In contrast, we considering that opiates are dangerous drugs because of high potential addiction. Ancient people knew use of opiates more than modern people how they could use opiates effective and better

The book primarily focused on opium use in general in 19th century Britain. Also, the book analyzes the positive and negative effects opium initiated with other countries and the people in Britain, predominantly the effect of opium addiction. I concentrated particularly on chapter four, which discussed about

Opium maintained an unavoidable presence in Victorian society. As prevalent as Aspirin today, opium was the pain killer