Opium

From NarratingLandscapes

By User: Joanna

A VERY abbreviated history:

Opium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). It contains up to 10% morphine, an opiate alkaloid. The resin also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids, such as papaverine and noscapine.

Cultivation of the opium poppy for food, anesthesia, and ritual purposes dates back to at least the Neolithic Age (placement of large numbers of poppy seed capsules at the burial site Cueva de los Murciélagos in Spain, carbon dated to 4200 B.C.). The Sumerian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Minoan, Greek, Roman, Persian and Arab Empires each made use of opium, which was the likely the most effective form of pain relief then available. Opium is mentioned in many important medical texts of the ancient world, including the Ebers Papyrus[1] and the writings of Dioscorides[2], Galen[3], and Avicenna[4].

Opium appears to have ritual significance since its inception as a drug. In Egypt, the use of opium appears to have been restricted to priests, magicians, and warriors. It was said to have been given by Isis to Ra as treatment for a headache. A figure of a Minoan goddess wearing a crown of three opium poppies[5], ca. 1300 B.C., was recovered from the Sanctuary of Gazi, Crete, together with a simple smoking apparatus[6]. The Greek gods Hypnos (Sleep), Nyx (Night), and Thanatos (Death) were depicted wreathed in poppies or holding poppies[7].

A couple thousand years later...

The earliest clear description of the use of opium as a recreational drug apparently came from Xu Boling, who wrote in 1483 that opium was "mainly used to aid masculinity, strengthen sperm and regain vigor," and that it "enhances the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies."

The smoking of pure opium (without tobacco or other herbs) became popular in the eighteenth century. In 1736, the smoking of opium, as described by Huang Shujing, was an elaborate procedure, requiring the maintenance of pots of opium at precise temperatures for a 'globule' to be scooped up with a needle-like skewer for smoking. Around this same time Chinese emigrants were arriving in cities such as San Francisco, London, and New York, and bringing with them the Chinese manner of opium smoking and the social habits of the opium den[8]. Among Europeans, opium was more frequently being consumed as laudanum[9].

There were no legal restrictions on importing or using of opium in the U.S. until the San Francisco, California, Opium Den Ordinance, which banned dens for the public smoking of opium in 1875.

In 1909, the International Opium Commission was founded, and in 1924, sixty-two nations participated in a meeting of the Commission. Subsequently, this role passed to the League of Nations, and all signatory nations agreed to prohibit the import, sale, distribution, export, and use of all narcotic drugs, except for medical and scientific purposes.

External Links

The Opium Museum[10]

Sources:

Paul L. Schiff, Jr. (2002)"Opium and its Alkoloids"[11]

"The Early History of the Poppy and Opium"[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium

Yangwen Zheng (2003). "The Social Life of Opium in China, 1483-1999". Modern Asian Studies 37 (1): 1–39

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