History of Opiates
The history of opiates
If we follow the poppy and its uses throughout the ages, we find a twisted path of its movement and impact as it travels around the world. Opiate use can be traced back to 3400 B.C. where it was first documented as being used and cultivated by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. Around 1300 B.C the Sumerians trade with the Assyrians and opium moves to the Babylonians and then on to Egypt. At this point the Egyptians move it across the Mediterranean Sea where it quickly spreads to Greece, Carthage, and Europe. Most of the use of opium, up to this point, is taken by mouth or inhaled from heated vessels in religious ceremonies and is considered to have magical properties.
Historically we don’t hear about opium again until 460 B.C. when Hippocrates publicly dismisses the notion of opium being magical and it then is considered to be a medicine. There is documentation of opium being used in addition to hemlock to initiate a quick and painless death.
Around 330 B.C. Alexander the great introduces opium into Persia and India and it isn’t until 400 A.D. that Arab traders bring opium into the continent of China.
No more documentation is available until the 1300’s when Europe strikes it from it’s historical records. The Holy Inquisition leads a campaign to deem opium as taboo and anything associated with the East as coming from the devil. Opium doesn’t become reintroduced into Europe until 1527 A.D. when a man named Paracelsus revives the medical aspects and creates Laudanum to be prescribed as a painkiller. Opium comes in the form of black pills that contain opium, crushed pearls, musk, amber and other substances and is labeled as “stones of immortality.”
Recreational use of opium by eating and drinking it becomes popular in Persia and India in the 1600’s. Eighty years later In Europe, Sydenham’s Laudanum, which is a mixture of opium, sherry wine and herbs, is created by Thomas Sydenham and becomes very popular for numerous ailments.
In 1700
If we follow the poppy and its uses throughout the ages, we find a twisted path of its movement and impact as it travels around the world. Opiate use can be traced back to 3400 B.C. where it was first documented as being used and cultivated by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. Around 1300 B.C the Sumerians trade with the Assyrians and opium moves to the Babylonians and then on to Egypt. At this point the Egyptians move it across the Mediterranean Sea where it quickly spreads to Greece, Carthage, and Europe. Most of the use of opium, up to this point, is taken by mouth or inhaled from heated vessels in religious ceremonies and is considered to have magical properties.
Historically we don’t hear about opium again until 460 B.C. when Hippocrates publicly dismisses the notion of opium being magical and it then is considered to be a medicine. There is documentation of opium being used in addition to hemlock to initiate a quick and painless death.
Around 330 B.C. Alexander the great introduces opium into Persia and India and it isn’t until 400 A.D. that Arab traders bring opium into the continent of China.
No more documentation is available until the 1300’s when Europe strikes it from it’s historical records. The Holy Inquisition leads a campaign to deem opium as taboo and anything associated with the East as coming from the devil. Opium doesn’t become reintroduced into Europe until 1527 A.D. when a man named Paracelsus revives the medical aspects and creates Laudanum to be prescribed as a painkiller. Opium comes in the form of black pills that contain opium, crushed pearls, musk, amber and other substances and is labeled as “stones of immortality.”
Recreational use of opium by eating and drinking it becomes popular in Persia and India in the 1600’s. Eighty years later In Europe, Sydenham’s Laudanum, which is a mixture of opium, sherry wine and herbs, is created by Thomas Sydenham and becomes very popular for numerous ailments.
In 1700