Opium/narcotics

Introduction

Opium (poppy tears, lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids, such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine. The latex is obtained by lacerating (or "scoring") the immature seed pods (fruits); the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky brown residue. This is scraped off the fruit. Meconium historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the poppy or different species of poppies. Modern opium production is the culmination of millennia of production, in which the morphine content of the plants, methods of extraction and processing, and methods of consumption have become increasingly potent.

Opium is consumed in a multitude of ways. Many people till the last century simply ate opium. With the discovery of its active constituent, morphine, in 1805 by Serturner, a way was opened by which the active constituents, rather than raw opium, could be directly taken. More opium alkaloids were discovered later. In 1817, the French chemist, Pierre Jean Bobiquet (1780-1840), isolated noscapine from opium and in 1832 he isolated yet another alkaloid codeine.( Matthee, 101)

Discussion

An important advance came about in 1853, when the French physician, Charles Gabriel Pravaz (1791-1853), invented the first practical metal syringe provided with a hollow needle. Known as the hypodermic syringe, it enabled doctors (and addicts too)to inject morphine directly underneath the skin or in the blood vessels. This produced a better and quicker effect than the ingestion of raw opium. Although as early as 1656, the English scientist Sir Christopher Wren(1632-1723), had succeeded in injecting drugs directly into a vein with the help of a hollow quill to which a small animal bladder was attached; this method never really caught on. A Scottish physician, Alexander Wood (1817-1884), was the first to inject morphine directly underneath the skin with the newly developed hypodermic syringe in the very same year that it was invented. (His wife became the first needle addict). His findings were published in 1855 and the whole world of medicine became aware of it. Soon afterwards, in the American Civil War (1861), morphine was widely administered to soldiers; not only to those wounded in battle to alleviate pain, but also to those suffering from dysentery. As a consequence, a large number of Civil War veterans returned to civilian life addicted to the drug, a condition euphemistically referred to as `army disease' or `soldier's illness'.

In our country, opium smoking assumed such monstrous dimensions, that the Government of Bengal had to pass the Bengal Opium Smoking Act in June 1933. It provided for the registration of the existing smokers who had to obtain a permit from the Excise Department. Anyone found smoking without a permit was prosecuted and on conviction had to undergo six months' imprisonment combined with paying a fine. As a result of the recommendation of the Opium Enquiry Committee in ...