Opioids Research Paper

Opioids are pain relievers that are made from opium. Opium is a reddish-brown, heavily scented, addictive drug prepared from the juice of the opium poppy. It is used as a narcotic (sometimes called opiates) and helps greatly with diminishing pain. Ordinary names that may be recognized are morphine and codeine, but there are also synthetically modified and mock drugs that are also quite common like percocet, vicodin, and even heroin. (website #10)

The earliest reference to opium growth and use is dated all the way back to the year 3,400 B.C. when the opium poppy was first cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. The Sumerians referred to the poppy as the “Joy Plant,” passing it and its euphoric effects on to the Assyrians, who eventually handed it to

Paracelsus came across a specific elixir of opium that was in great use of reducing pain. He called the preparation laudanum, and it still remains available by prescription in the United States. Thomas Sydenham, who is known as the “father of English medicine,” introduced his own variation of laudanum in the year 1680. It contained opium, sherry, and an assortment of herbs. In 1806, morphine was isolated from opium by a German chemist known as Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner. He decided to name it morphine after the god of dreams, Morpheus. Morphine soon became the mainstay of medical treatment throughout the nineteenth century. The drug was used to treat pain, anxiety, and respiratory problems, as well as a number of other common problems the public faced. Morphine played a big role during the Civil War, because a larger number of soldiers became addicted to the opiate that was used to help with their injuries from battle. In 1853, the hypodermic needle was invented. Morphine began to be used in minor surgeries which gave rise to the medicalization of opioids. Safer alternatives to the drug was sought after since so many individuals were beginning to abuse morphine. (Website

The chemical company Bayer offered heroin as a cough suppressant and was advertised as being a non-addictive substitute to morphine. Free samples of heroin were distributed through the mail to morphine addicts in the early 1900s, with high hopes of helping them overcome their bad habit. In 1909, Congress passed the Opium Exclusion Act barring the importation of opium for the use of smoking. The act was the first initiative in the United States war on drugs. The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 taxed and limited the access to opiates, but it also served as a de facto prohibition of the drugs. That same year, Kennedy Foster wrote an article in the New York Medical Journal that made his distaste in the use of morphine known. A few years after Bayer stopped mass producing heroin, German scientists at the University of Frankfurt first synthesized oxycodone with the hope that it would retain the analgesic effects of morphine and heroin with less dependence. Heroin sales stopped completely with the passing of The Heroin Act of 1924, which made the manufacture, sale, possession, and use of the drug illegal in the United States. (Website