Important Moments in the History of Opiate Addiction
One of the oldest families of drugs in the world, opiate-based drugs have been used for their medicinal and euphoric effect for centuries. And in order to understand the current state of opiate use, one must first look back at crucial points throughout the history of the drug.
Important Moments in the History of Opiate Addiction
- It is believed that people from the early Neolithic period used poppies – the root of opiates – for food, and likely understood the plant's euphoric effects even then.
- In the eighth century Arabic spice traders brought opium to the Far East – specifically India and China. Approximately 200 years later, it moved from these regions to the rest of Europe.
- Around the sixteenth century, the first documentation begins to appear about addiction to opium throughout Europe, India and China.
- The country most severely impacted by Opium addiction was China – due to the fact the British forced the country to open up imports of the drug and legalize its consumption.
- In the early 1800's, the chemist Seturner was able to isolate and identify the active ingredient in opium, which he named Morphine after the Greek god Morpheus.
- Throughout the early and mid-1800's, morphine was used during surgical procedures as a general anesthetic and as relief for chronic pain. By the end of the century however, there were just as many individuals addicted to morphine as there were to opium.
- Chemists believed they discovered a non-addictive form of the opiate around the turn of the nineteenth century. Heroin, as it was called, was released with great fanfare. It worked for pain relief, but the claims of it being non-addictive all proved to be untrue.
- Over the course of the next century, governments around the world, having seen first-hand the opiate addiction of its citizens, would begin to recognize the dangers of heroin, morphine and opium. Soon these drugs were outlawed for medicinal purposes, and pushed underground.
- The dangers of Heroin and Morphine use remain to this day. In any given year, over half of the drug deaths in the world are caused by heroin or morphine. Also, emergency rooms visits due to accidental heroin overdose have risen steadily over the past ten years.
- Heroin has claimed the life of several high-profile celebrities, including: Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, John Belushi and others.
- Heroin use was blamed for helping spread HIV and AIDS thanks to the sharing of dirty, infected needles between addicts.
- Almost 4% of high school students have reported trying heroin at least once during their life.
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