Opioids

Abstract

Abstract Opium was used for its medicinal and perhaps for its sensory-altering effects long before records of such use could be made. Opium was and continues to be obtained from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), which may have been domesticated thousands of years ago in what is now Turkey (Asia Minor). The cultivation and use of opium moved readily to the ancient civilizations of Greece and Egypt, and Arabian traders eventually carried it to India and China. The opium poppy is depicted in the most ancient written language, Sumerian, in approximately 3100 B.c. in southern Iraq (Mesopotamia). In the Ebers Papyri Egyptian physicians recommended the use of opium for a number of disorders in 1550 B.c. (Davenport-Hines, 2002; Terry and Pellens, 1928). Apparent references to opium were made by, among others of the ancient world, Homer, Hippocrates, Theophrastus-a pupil of Aristotle-Virgil, Pliny, and Galen. Until fairly recently, the primary sources of both legal and illicit opium were Afghanistan and Myanmar, with reduced amounts grown in Turkey and Pakistan as their standards of living and outside pressure increased. In the past decade, countries that previously specialized in cocaine production, such as Columbia and Mexico, were growing large amounts of opium for illegal export to the United States and Europe (Brzezinski, 2002; Karch, 2002).