| Humans have used opium for its mind altering
effects longer than any drug other than alcohol. Written records
indicate that inhabitants of the Middle East used opium as early as 4000
B.C. The ancient Greeks and Romans, fully aware of opium's dual effects
of pain relief and euphoric rush, ingested the drug for medical treatment
and recreational purposes. In The Odyssey, Homer describes a warm,
sleepy feeling caused by a plant-derived drug that closely matches the
properties of opium. Hippocrates and Galen, two of the most prominent
Greek physicians, employed opium to battle headaches, coughing, asthma
and melancholy. In the first century A.D., poppy extract inherited
the name "opius," which is Greek for "little juice" (Snyder, 1989).
In 1805, German chemist Friedrich Serturner isolated
the pure active ingredient in opium. He named this chemical morphine,
after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Serturner's discovery was
the first isolation of an active ingredient from any drug. He proved
that pure chemicals within plants are what interact with the body to cause
internal physiological changes. The pharmaceutical industry arose
from his discovery (Iversen, 1996). |
Opium is a gummy substance that
is
extracted from the poppy plant.
Image
from Snyder, 1996.
Used with
permission by W.H. Freeman and
Company. |
