Manchuria Opium Squad - Tome 1

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Heroin comes from the gum of opium poppies ( Papaver somniferum). These flowers aren't difficult to grow, Wankel said. They thrive in temperate climates and are probably native to the Mediterranean, but they can be grown in subtropical and tropical regions as well. Heroin is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and as such has no acceptable medical use in the United States. Four substances in particular came to have widespread usage around the world: alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and opium. Each has been used widely as a recreational drug – that is, one taken socially or for pleasure rather than for medicinal purposes. While each of these have different effects on our central nervous system, they also all act to trigger a specific part of the brain.

There is one accepted subspecies, P. somniferum subsp. setigerum (DC.) Arcang. [12] There are also many varieties and cultivars. Colors of the flowers vary widely, as do other physical characteristics, such as number and shape of petals [ citation needed], number of flowers and fruits, number of seeds, color of seeds, and production of opium. Papaver somniferum var. paeoniflorum is a variety with flowers that are highly double, and are grown in many colors. P. somniferum var. laciniatum is a variety with flowers that are highly double and deeply lobed. The variety Sujata produces no latex and no commercial utility for opioid production. Most illicit heroin is sold as a white or brownish powder and may be "cut" with other substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. It can also be cut with strychnine or other poisons. The mesolimbic pathway runs forward from the brainstem and is made up of nerve cells that release the signalling molecule dopamine, which is enormously important in motivating our behaviour towards survival and reproduction. Eating food, quenching thirst or having sex all result in the release of dopamine and produce a reward signal in the brain – we perceive it as the sensation of pleasure. Wong, J. Y. (7 November 2002). Deadly Dreams: Opium and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52619-7. Hayatbakhsh M, Oghabian Z, Conlon E, Nakhaee S, Amirabadizadeh A, Zahedi M, et al. Lead poisoning among opium users in Iran: an emerging health hazard. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy. 2017;12(43).The Assyrians and the Egyptians also cultivated opium, and it traveled along the Silk Road (a series of travel routes) between Europe and China where it was involved in the beginning of the Opium Wars of the 1800s. a b Chen, Song-Chuan (1 January 2017). Merchants of War and Peace: British Knowledge of China in the Making of the Opium War. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-988-8390-56-4. JSTOR j.ctt1k3s9gv. The native range of opium poppy is probably the Eastern Mediterranean, but extensive cultivation and introduction of the species throughout Europe since ancient times have obscured its origin. It has escaped from cultivation, or has been introduced and become naturalized extensively in all regions of the British Isles, particularly in the south and east [16] and in almost all other countries of the world with suitable, temperate climates. [17] Ecology [ edit ] Diseases [ edit ] USC Chapter 6 – Narcotic Drugs 01/03/2007". Joffelaw.com. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014 . Retrieved 30 December 2011. Baumler, Alan (2007). The Chinese and Opium under the Republic: Worse Than Floods and Wild Beasts. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791469538.

Mosaic diseases in p. somniferum are caused by rattle virus and the Carlavirus. [18] In 2006, a novel virus tentatively called "opium poppy mosaic virus" (OPMV) from the genus Umbravirus was isolated from p. somniferum containing leaf mosaic and mottling symptoms, in New Zealand. [25] Pests [ edit ] Opium is the latex fluid exuded from cuts made in the immature seed capsules of certain varieties of poppy, which is then dried to a powder. This latex contains the analgesic compound morphine (and also codeine), which provides pain relief and produces a warm feeling of relaxation and detachment. Poppies were cultivated for their opium in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians from the third millennium BC and named “plants of joy”. Opium use continued in the Middle East, as well as in Egypt, and the drug was known in ancient Greek medicine at least as early as the third century BC. By the eighth century AD, Arab traders had taken opium to India and China, and between the 10th and 13th centuries it made its way across Europe.

Heroin methods of use

Fairbank, John King. Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the treaty ports, 1842-1854 (Cambridge, Harvard U. P, 1953) online.