Opium
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WARNING: The processes, techniques, or activities described in this article may be illegal or regulated in many jurisdictions.
This page is provided for informational purposes only and does not endorse, encourage, or condone any illegal activities. Readers are responsible for complying with all applicable local, national, and international laws. |
Warning: While it is perfectly legal in most cases to grow opium producing poppies, harvesting opium from them is not in most places. Under no circumstances are illicit activities supported, this is for educational purposes. Please adhere to your local laws.
Opium, or rather raw opium, is the dried milky, latex sap collected from gently slicing the sides of the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Raw opium contains about 12% morphine by weight, and much smaller percentages of 23 other opiate alkaloids such as codeine.[1] Opium is traditionnaly used as a pain-relief medicine and recreational drug through smoking, inhalation of vapors, suppositories or medical poultices.
Opium contains two main groups of alkaloids. Phenanthrenes such as morphine, codeine, and thebaine are the main psychoactive constituents. Isoquinolines such as papaverine and noscapine have no significant central nervous system effects. Morphine is the most prevalent and important alkaloid in opium. Morphine binds to and activates mu opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord, stomach and intestine. Regular use can lead to drug tolerance or physical dependence. Morphine is also responsible for most of its harmful effects such as lung edema, respiratory difficulties, coma, or cardiac or respiratory collapse.
While the majority of the opiate alkaloids of the plant are released in the opium sap, useable quantities remain within the rest of the plant. The seed pods (even after collecting raw opium and seeds from), as well as the flower petals contain enough alkaloids to be useful without needing much if any extraction or refinement. The leaves, stems, and roots contain very little active alkaloids and require extraction and refinement to be used as an opium product.
History, medicinal and recreational use
Opium has been used both medicinally and recreationally for over 8,000 years[2] .
How raw opium is gathered
To extract opium, the unripe poppy seed pod is scored by a sharp blade at a time carefully chosen so that rain, wind, and dew cannot spoil the exudation of white, milky latex, usually in the afternoon, upward along the pod. Incisions are made three or four times at intervals of two to three days, and each time the "poppy tears", which dry to a sticky brown resin, are collected the following morning. A traditional Chinese method of harvesting opium latex involved cutting off the heads and piercing them with a coarse needle then collecting the dried opium 24 to 48 hours later.
Processing of the raw latex into opium
How to make a simple opium tea
Before or after opium or seeds are harvested, the seed pods (and optionally, the flower petals) and be dried and stored. A simple opium tea can be made by steeping the dried pods in hot water like any other common herbal tea. Seed pods that have already had opium extracted from them will be notably less potent. While this tea can be made to be very potent, it is generally quite mild and is best used as a light pain killer for headaches, joint pains, and other minor pains and injuries.