What Kind of Drug Is It?

Opium is the sticky white sap that flows from ripening seed pods of the Papaver somniferum plant. The plant's Latin name means "poppy" (Papaver) "that induces sleep" (somniferum). The word opium comes from the Greek word for sap. For more than 6, 000 years, humans have CULTIVATED opium poppies and have used opium to relieve pain and to induce euphoria, a heightened sense of happiness and well-being. As of 2005, opium poppy plants are grown legally to supply painkilling, cough suppressing, and antidiarrheal medicines to people all over the world. Illegally, the plants are grown to produce cooked opium, morphine, and heroin—highly addictive substances that are abused for their mind-altering effects.

All of the heroin, morphine, codeine, and THEBAINE used in the world begins as opium. Raw opium, removed from the plant, is first refined by cooking. It is then chemically altered in various...