Manchuria Opium Squad - Tome 1

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Morphine is the predominant alkaloid found in the cultivated varieties of opium poppy that are used for opium production. [75] Other varieties produce minimal opium or none at all, such as the latex-free Sujata type. Non-opium cultivars that are planted for drug production feature a high level of thebaine or oripavine. Those are refined into drugs like oxycodone. Raw opium contains about 8–14% morphine by dry weight, or more in high-yield cultivars. [76] It may be used directly or chemically modified to produce semi-synthetic opioids such as heroin. Taken orally, opium was used medically to treat pain. The morphine is able to bind to nerve cell receptors (which are normally targets for the body’s own hormones, such as endorphins) in parts of the brain involved in the sensation of pain, such as the thalamus, brainstem and spinal cord. But opiates also bind to receptors in the mesolimbic reward pathway, and so beyond its medicinal properties, opium was therefore craved as a recreational drug. The opiate drugs are extracted from opium. The latex oozes from incisions made on the green seed pods and is collected once dry. Tincture of opium or laudanum, consisting of opium dissolved in alcohol or a mixture of alcohol and water, is one of many unapproved drugs regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Its marketing and distribution persists because its historical use preceded the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938. [73] Tincture of opium B.P., containing 1% w/v of anhydrous morphine, also remains in the British Pharmacopoeia, [74] listed as a Class A substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Laudanum bottles from the 19th century. Photograph: Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images

Since January 1999 in the Czech Republic, according to the 167/1998 Sb. Addictive Substances Act, poppies growing in fields larger than 100 square metres (120sqyd) is obliged for reporting to the local Custom Office. [40] [41] Extraction of opium from the plants is prohibited by law (§ 15 letter d/ of the act). It is also prohibited to grow varieties with more than 0.8% of morphine in dry matter of their capsules, excluding research and experimental purposes (§24/1b/ of the act). The name Czech blue poppy refers to blue poppy seeds used for food. [ citation needed]a b "Breadseed or opium poppy, Papaver somniferum" (PDF). University of Wisconsin Extension, Master Gardener Program . Retrieved 21 November 2020. Rinde M (2018). "Opioids' Devastating Return". Distillations. 4 (2): 12–23 . Retrieved 23 August 2018. Lowes, Peter D. (1966). The Genesis of International Narcotics Control. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-04030-3. Peter Ward Fay (9 November 2000). The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. University of North Carolina Press. pp.290–. ISBN 978-0-8078-6136-3. Find sources: "Papaver somniferum"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( July 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

As more potent drugs have appeared on the market, overdose deaths have spiked. Since 1999, according to the CDC, opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled. In 2015, the agency reported that 33,091 Americans died of a drug overdose involving a prescription or illegal opioid drug. The problem of heroin addiction goes beyond the drug itself. Overprescription of legal opioid drugs— along with less-than-upstanding doctors and pharmacists who run "pill mills" that prescribe painkillers freely — has helped create widespread addiction to opioids, said Theodore Cicero, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who has researched opioid abuse. (Though only 4 percent of people who misuse prescription pills go on to use heroin, nearly 80 percent of people who become addicted to heroin had used prescription pills first, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.) Withdrawal symptoms usually start six to 24 hours after the last dose and can last around seven to ten days. These symptoms are described as flu-like, and can include: Singh, A., I. M. Menendez-Perdomo, et al. (2019). "Benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis in opium poppy: an update." Phytochem Rev 18(6): 1457-1482

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Recently, more potent opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanyl have been found "cut" into heroin sold on the streets, and can be deadly to unsuspecting users. Death have been reported. Opium dens were places where opium could be bought and sold, and were also found worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia, China and Europe. In New Zealand, it is legal to cultivate the opium poppy as long as it is not used to produce controlled drugs. [54]