What Is Opium?
Opium is a highly addictive drug. It’s made from juice extracted from the unripe seed pods of opium poppy plants (the scientific name is Papaver somniferum). Opium is used to make a class of drugs called opiates, which includes prescription painkillers like morphine and codeine, as well as illicit drugs like heroin.
Opiates fall into a larger class of drugs called opioids. These include drugs that contain or are derived from opium as well as drugs with similar effects that are made from chemicals developed in a lab, such as fentanyl and methadone. Some common prescription painkillers, such as oxycodone (OxyContin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin), are partially derived from opium.
Where does opium come from?
The opium poppy grows best in warm, dry climates. Most opium is grown in a long, narrow stretch of mountains in central Asia, an area that starts in Turkey and moves east through Afghanistan and Pakistan to Myanmar. Opium also is grown in Latin America, especially Mexico and Columbia. Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Columbia are the leading sources of the illegal opium trade. India, Turkey, and Australia grow opium for legal medicinal use.
What does opium look like?
Legally available opium most often comes in a fine brown powder. Opium for the illegal drug trade frequently comes in a gum that’s sticky and dark, though it also can be processed into a liquid or a powder.
How is opium made?
The unripe seed pods of the opium poppy plant hold a milky substance. People make cuts in the pods to let the substance drain out. It’s then scraped and dried, producing illegal opium. The legal production of opium uses a different method called the poppy straw process. It’s done by extracting chemicals called alkaloids from dried, mature poppy plants.
Opium vs. heroin
Opium is a key ingredient used to make heroin. Drugmakers first extract the chemical morphine from opium and then process it with different chemicals in order to produce heroin. Both opium and heroin produce a similar high.
How Is Opium Used?
Opium undergoes minimal processing -- such as air drying, boiling, or heat drying -- before it can be used, though it can be consumed raw. Opium can be:
- Chewed or eaten
- Pounded then mixed with a drink, such as water, tea, or wine
- Smoked in an opium pipe
Opium Effects
Many things influence how opium will affect you, including:
- Your height and your weight
- Your overall health
- How regularly you use opium
- If you take it with other drugs
- How much opium you take
- How strong the opium is, which can vary from one batch to the next
Opium high
Taking opium will give you a sense of euphoria, or feelings of intense happiness or well-being, that’s followed by feelings of relaxation. Opium also relieves physical pain.
Opium side effects
Taking opium also comes with some unpleasant, even dangerous side effects, including:
- Reduced heart rate
- Slow, shallow breathing
- Constipation
- Impaired reflexes
- Loss of appetite
- Dry mouth as well as dried nasal passages
- Drowsiness
- Inability to concentrate
- Feeling apathetic
Long-term effects of opium
Opium can continue to affect you after your high has ended. The drug is highly addictive, and you can develop a physical and psychological dependence upon it. Other long-term effects include:
- An increasing tolerance, which means you’ll need larger and larger doses to achieve a high
- Loss of libido (your sex drive)
- Irregular menstrual cycle
- Difficulty conceiving children and having a successful pregnancy
- Reduced sperm count and lower sperm quality
Opium Overdose
An opium overdose occurs when you take too much of the drug. Overdoses require immediate medical attention. Here are the symptoms to watch for:
- The pupils of the eyes shrink and become tiny pinpoints
- Seizures
- Slowed breathing
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Loss of consciousness
- Lips and fingertips turning blue due to lack of oxygen
- Unresponsiveness
- Not breathing
An overdose can lead to a coma and cause brain damage. It also can be fatal. If someone you’re with overdoses, do the following:
- Try to wake them up by yelling their name and rubbing hard on the middle of their chest with your knuckles. Also try rubbing their upper lip and pinching the back of their arm.
- If you have it, administer one dose of naloxone (Narcan) every two minutes. This drug can reverse an overdose.
- Call 911.
- Start rescue breathing by lying them on their back, straightening their airways by tilting their head back, pinching their nose, placing your mouth over theirs to form a seal, and breathing into their mouth every 5 seconds.
- If they begin to breathe on their own, move them onto their side, called the recovery position.
When you call 911, tell them the following:
- Your exact location so paramedics can find you easily.
- Don’t mention drugs or say it’s an overdose. Instead, relay just the symptoms you witness, such as the person is not breathing, unconscious, or unresponsive.
When they get there, tell the paramedics what you know about the drugs the person took. This will help guide their treatment, such as giving naloxone (Narcan).
Calling 911 should be your priority. But it’s important to know that police may arrive on the scene with the ambulance. Don’t let that stop you from calling for an ambulance. In all states except Wyoming, Good Samaritan laws provide some protection for people who call for help when someone has an overdose.
In some states, these laws provide broad protection from arrest and prosecution for drug-related crimes, while in some other states, the help you give during the person’s overdose will provide you what’s called an "affirmative defense," which means you will not be found guilty of a crime.
Opium Addiction
Drug addiction, including addiction to opium, is also called substance use disorder. It’s a disease that impacts both your brain and your behavior. When you are addicted to a drug, you become unable to control your use of that drug or your body’s demand for it. This makes it hard to go without it, leading to symptoms of withdrawal. Over time, you may need more and more of the drug to get high.
You can become addicted to legally produced drugs made from opium, such as prescription pain medicine, as well as illicit opium-derived drugs like heroin. However, experts don’t know why drugs like opium (opioids) cause addiction in some but not all people. The more regularly you take such drugs, the greater your chance of developing an addiction. Often, addiction occurs within two weeks of starting the drug, though it can begin much more quickly. Some research suggests that a single dose could increase your risk.
Opium withdrawal
Once addicted to opium, you will have unpleasant side effects if you don’t take the drug on a regular schedule. This is called withdrawal, and it usually starts within 6 to 24 hours of your last dose. Withdrawal symptoms may last about 7 to 10 days. These symptoms include:
- Restlessness
- Sweating
- Runny nose and eyes
- Insomnia
- Goosebumps (piloerection)
- Hot and cold flushes
- Aches and pains in your bones and joints
- Diarrhea
- Racing heartbeat
- Vomiting and nausea
- Depression
Opium addiction treatment
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to treating opium addiction. Instead, your treatment will be tailored to your needs and circumstances. You may need to try more than one approach before you find one that leads to recovery that lasts over the long term.
Treatment begins with an assessment of your problem and your overall health. You will discuss:
- How long you have been taking opium or opium-derived drugs
- Other medications that you currently take
- Family history of addiction
- Other health problems, both mental and physical
- Your social and financial circumstances and needs
In addition to counseling and support groups, you may be prescribed medications to help you recover. The three most commonly used drugs are:
- Methadone, which reduces your desire to take opium and other opioids
- Buprenorphine, which reduces your desire to take opium and other opioids
- Naltrexone, which blocks the ability of opium and other opioids from getting you high
Opium Harm Reduction Tips
You can lower your risk of overdose and other harms that can occur when you get high. Following these tips may save your life:
- Carry naloxone (Narcan) with you at all times. This drug can reverse an overdose should one occur.
- Show your friends and family how to use naloxone so they can give it to you if necessary.
- Don’t take drugs alone. Have someone with you in case of an overdose.
- Make sure those you’re with know what you have taken.
- Use test strips to test your drugs for fentanyl, an opioid that can cause overdoses in very small amounts.
- Don’t drive or operate machinery while you’re high.
- If you inject your drugs, use clean needles and do not share needles with other people. This helps prevent the spread of infections like HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.
Opium interactions
You increase your risk of harm if you take opium along with certain other substances.
- Nitrous oxide, often referred to as whippets and laughing gas, can lead you to black out or pass out when taken with opium.
- Methamphetamines and cocaine can put additional strain on your heart when taken with opium.
- Depressants, including alcohol, benzodiazepines, ketamine, and GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), boost the sedating effect of opium, making it more likely that you’ll pass out. While unconscious, you’re at higher risk of choking on vomit and dying.
Opium and lead
Another danger of opium: It may contain lead. It’s not clear how the lead gets into the opium. It may be intentionally added to increase the drug’s weight, it could be due to contamination of the equipment used to process it, or the opium plant may have been grown in soil contaminated by lead.
Whatever the reason, consuming opium with lead increases your risk of lead poisoning, which in adults can damage the kidneys and nervous system. High levels of lead can be fatal. Symptoms of lead poisoning in adults include:
- High blood pressure
- Pain in your joints and muscles
- Trouble concentrating
- Memory problems
- Headache
- Pain in the abdomen
- Mood problems
- Low sperm count and abnormal sperm
- Miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature birth
Is Opium Illegal?
Yes and no. A small amount of opium is used legally in the production of some prescription drugs, such as codeine and morphine. However, most of the opium grown and processed each year is used to make heroin.
Takeaways
Opium is a highly addictive drug. While it’s used to make some prescription painkillers, it’s also the main ingredient in heroin. In addition to addiction, opium use can lead to overdose and death. Treatment can help reduce your dependence on opium and enable you to live without it.
Opium FAQs
When was opium made illegal?
In the U.S., opium was first made illegal in 1909, when federal law passed banning its importation and use except for use in medicine. Many more laws restricting its use in the country have been passed since then.
How is opium prepared?
Illicit opium is extracted as a milky substance from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy plant. It's then dried before it’s ready to be used or added to the production of heroin. Legally produced opium undergoes a different process involving extracting chemicals from dried mature seed pods.
Why was opium sold?
Opium is still sold, both legally and illegally. It’s used in the production of prescription pain medicine, such as codeine and morphine, as well as to manufacture heroin. Less often, it’s sold to be used as a drug on its own.
Is opium still popular?
It’s not as popular a drug on its own as it used to be. About 80% of the opium produced for the drug trade each year goes into heroin.
Why is opium famous?
Opium has a long history. In fact, it’s one of the oldest drugs used for both medicinal and recreational purposes. It’s highly addictive and is the main ingredient in heroin as well as in prescription painkillers that are frequently abused.
