Heady Times at the Bakery

Less acres not less drugs

2005-11-09T05:50:00.000-08:00

Drug production has gone up in Burma and Afghanistan, the two major opium producing nations of the world. This gives the impression that not much is being done by the outside nations. However, this is the exact opposite of what is being done to counteract the issue. In fact, Burma, which produces 21 percent of the world's opium, has a program instituted to wipe out drug cultivation by 2014 and in Afghanistan the US forces are working with the local officials to stop the farmers from planting the poppy crop. These programs work by getting more and more farmers to grow alternative crops besides poppy.

However, the number of farmers giving up the drug producing cannot compare with the increase in production. Where does this increase come from? Technology and efficacy. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime executive director Antonio Maria Costa in a report stated:

"Compared to the previous year, opium production has doubled in the southern Shan State despite the acreage showing only a slight increase. This is in part due to additional rains, however, and more disquieting, also due to improved cultivation practices"

Over the years the cultivation technology has gotten much more efficient, which allows farmers to turn out more poppies per capita. This means that even though some farmers have stopped growing poppies and some fields are lost to raids every year the increase in production helps to offset the losses which continues the upward trend in drug production. The war on drugs is truly a war because everyday many battles are fought on fronts all over the world between drug enforcers and drug traffickers. The problem is that neither side is showing any sign of giving up.

Source: Concerns remain despite drops in opium

British effort to combat Afghan opium trade is causing even more desparation

2005-11-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

As the British effort to stop the flow of Afghan opium into the Unite Kingdom continues, more and more Afghan farmers are giving up their poppy cultivation due to the pressure from the Afghan authorities. So far, the fight against opium in Afghanistan appears to have been successful with the nationwide opium cultivation dropping by 21 percent. Moreover, reports show a whopping 96 percent decrease in the Nangahar province.

However, it would seem that the success would only be enjoyed by the British. Because Afghan poppy farmers are being forced to leave their poppy crop, they are growing more and more desparate of finding any other means of supporting their family. According to the Oct 3, 2005 The Independent article, some farmers have resorted to selling their daughters in order to pay the debts to the drug traffickers who lent them money to buy the seeds. This is actually a traditional Afghan practice in which daughters are gifted to pay off the debts. Other methods of income such as growing wheat has proven to be not profitable enough to sustain a family. A farmer could make 25 times more money from growing poppy plants than from growing wheat on a same amount of land.

The article mentions a 68-year-old Afghan poppy farmer, Mohamed Hanif Isamuddin, from Laghman province, next to Nangahar, who was forced by the Afghan authorities to give up his poppy crop. In return, he was promised with free seed to grow alternative crops, which he got none. However, Mr. Isamuddin approved of the government's effort of restricting poppy cultivation:

"The government is doing the right thing... According to our religion, opium is prohibited. But if you have to feed your family, you do what you have to do."

Regardless of the fact that the authorities are slowly winning in their combat against Afghan opium trade, the poor Afghan farmers face grim futures with little to no means of sustaining their family. With growing government pressure on poppy cultivation and no profitable alternative source of income, the Afghan farmers are stuck in a grave deadlock.

Wild poppy and a small dose of jealousy puts two unlikely "drug dealers" in jail

2005-11-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

There was a rather amusing article from The Independent on Feb 3, 2004, which covers the case of a British couple in Italy who were arrested with charges of drug dealing and cultivating opium poppies to produce morphine. The couple had just moved into their freshly renovated home in Italy when a local in the community claimed that they, Dr. Clive Gillis and his wife Nina, had been growing poppy in their garden for drug dealing. The couple was sentenced to 22 years in jail. Thankfully, all charges were dropped when it was discovered that the poppies were not being cultivated for drugs but were simply growing wild. The amusing part is that judge Niclaflavia Restivo, who dealt with the case, concluded that the case was due to a local's jealousy towards the British couple who had beautifully restored their new property that was once a ruin.

"The root of the problem seems to be jealousy on the part of the locals, for the way they have transformed their farmhouse into an extremely pretty and well-restored home. To see a house come to life seemed to inspire jealousy among locals. Their home is extremely charming and its value has shot up. It would not be the first time that new people in an area were `got at' by this form of sniping, with a view to driving them out of their homes."

Dr. Gillis says that he and his wife knew about the wild poppy plants growing near their house. However, they simply loved how beautiful the plants were and kept some growing. They even asked their neighbors to water them while they were out. Mrs. Gillis did not even know that drugs could be derived from the plant. Who would have thought such unlikely couple was to be labeled as criminals all because of their admiration for beauty? Not only will poppy plant be remembered as the infamous precursor to the notorious drugs like opium and heroin, but will now also be known to have falsely put innocents into jail.

Morphine Produced in Brain

2005-11-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

Last year, several researchers finally found the evidence they needed to support the theory that morphine occurs naturally in the human brain. Meinhart Zenk and his colleagues at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany found that human cells grown in a dish produced morphine. Therefore, Zenk concluded:

"Without doubt, human cells can produce the alkaloid morphine."

In the past, many scientists were skeptical about this claim, believing that the samples that were studied were contaminated with morphine molecules. However, the new evidence showed that morphine could indeed occur in the human brain. This presents new possibilities for doctors who are treating patients with a need for morphine. Instead of just giving the patient morphine, doctors could give them a morphine precursor (a molecule that would set off a chain reaction ending with increased morphine production in the brain). This new approach could be very helpful because it can decrease patients' dependency. The discovery could also help explain why some patients do get addicted to morphine: a morphine deficiency.

Wired News: Morphine Apparently in your Head

Afghan women use drugs to cope with pain

2005-11-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

The September 30, 2004 article of The Independent mentions the increase in the number of opium addicts in the war-torn nation of Afghanistan. This may come with no surprise since Afghanistan is the largest supplier of illegal poppy crop in the world. However, according to the article, some people, particularly women, are taking drugs in order to cope with the pains brought about by the long history of wars in Afghanistan. The wars had torn apart families and terrorized many Afghan people.

The article emphasizes how women are especially at risk of using opium based narcotics in Afghanistan. Many of these women have painful memories of their loss from the war. Some are widows who had lost their husbands from the war and were left to face their hopeless futures alone. To cope with their sorrows, many of these unfortunate Afghan women resorted to abusing drugs, such as opium and heroin.

"War trauma is by far the biggest factor among those using opiates. Even if they didn't start abuse during the war, the nightmares are still with them years later."

For example, an Afghan widow mentioned in the article, Halima, smokes opium three times a day to soothe her painful memories of her husband's death when they were trying to flee from the fighting in Kabul.

Taking opiates is forbidden in Islam. Although Afghanistan had been the biggest supplier of opium, heroin, and morphine, the disapproval from the general Afghan community prevented most people from abusing them. However, as the opium trade in the Western world and opium traffickers increased, the number of abusers in Afghanistan went up dramatically. According to Dr Ahmad Shah Habib of the Nejaf rehabilitation centre, heroin was unknown in Kabul 15 years ago. Kabul now has about 60,000 addicts. According to the The Nejaf Centre records, around 2000 of them are women. However, because most women find it too shameful to mention their habits, there is believed to be far greater number of women abusers.

"The growth of heroin factories inside the country and the increasing sophistication of the Afghan drugs industry means production is far greater than before."

The increased production would only make the drugs more accessible. With so many Afghan people with painful memories from the war, great number of people are at great risk of the ever increasing drug abuse in Afghanistan.

Afghan heroin to flow into UK despite all the "countermeasures"

2005-11-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

About a month ago on September 25, 2005, The Independent on Sunday revealed that, despite the British lead multi-million-pound effort to stop Afghan opium trade, Afghan heroin will be flowing into UK for another 10 years. This brings up the question of whether the efforts had been strong enough.

UK became the leading fighter against the Afghan opium trade because nearly 95 percent of the heroin used in UK is from Afghanistan. They were given the position in the campaign over three years ago. However, critics are beginning wonder if the efforts by the UK and US drug enforcers had been sufficient enough over the years. After four years since the fall of Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the poppy cultivation has been greater than ever before. And, now, despite millions of pound spent for the cause of the campaign, Afghan heroin is still flowing into nations like UK. It would seem that their efforts were not good enough.

Farmers going down with their crop

2005-11-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

The poppy crop in Myanmar has gone down since the last year. The potential opium production has fallen from 370 tons to 312 tons. Though the decline is a good thing in the sense that less drugs will be produced, it hurts the local farmers. The people most affected by this will be the poor farmers. They rely on the high money yield from their crop because they do not have much room for farming. As the production of poppies declines the farmers will lose the small amount of money they earn and will not be able to supply the essential needs for their families.

But why must the farmers resort to poppy crop? Why not just grow their own food? This is simply because it is very hard to grow enough food for your family on the same amount of land whereas you could grow poppies and have enough money to purchase the food you need. This is why it would be very hard to eliminate poppy plantations in Myanmar. By taking away the income from the farmers and not replacing it with something that can yield the same income you would create a large humanitarian problem with thousands of starving people with no means to help themselves.

Myanmar Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control Police Chief Brigadier-General, Khin Yi, stressed the importance of food security and alternative method of income for the poppy-growing farmers. This would prevent the farmers from going back to cultivating poppy crop.

"Khin Yi, who is also CCDAC secretary, expressed Myanmar's commitment to maintaining the present momentum by relying on its own resources in the launching of a 15-year plan (1999-2014) on totally eradicating drugs in the country."

Source: Opium cultivation in Myanmar drops in 2005

Endorphin - The Endogenous Opioid

2005-11-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

Endorphins are opioids produced in our body. They are produced in the brains of any vertebrates, which includes humans, pigs, and cows etc. More specifically, they are created in the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus.

Endorphin acts like morphine though each has a very different chemical structure. Endorphins are known as the "natural painkillers" because they regulate pain and are produced in body of an organism. When endorphins are released, they create an analgesic effect much like that of a morphine. They relieve the body of pain. Of all the different types of endorphins, beta-endorphins are known to be the chief pain-reliever.

Endorphins were first discovered only 30 years ago in 1975. John Hughes and Hans Kosterlitz of Scotland found these opioid biochemical compounds in the brain of a pig. They called the compound "enkephalin." Later in the United States, Rabi Simantov and Solomon H. Snyder found the same endogenous opioid compound in the brain of a calf and called it "endorphin," abbreviated from "endogenous morphine."

Source: Overview of Endorphins

Afghan Poppy Crop for Medicine

2005-11-03T18:38:00.000-08:00

According to the Chicago-Sun Times article of May 16, 2005, poppy crops from Afghan farmers can be used for medicine. In order to make this possible, there needs to be added security to monitor the trafficking of Afghan poppy crop. U.S. and Afghan officials say that currently the security in Afghanistan is not high enough to make use of the Afghan poppy for medicine. This is especially shown from the fact that Afghanistan produces more than 4,000 metric tons of opium illegally.

Moreover, according to Emmanuel Reinert, the executive director of the Senlis Council, Afghan poppy production could help to lower prices of morphine and codeine. According to the article, there is a worldwide shortage of morphine and codeine.

"Currently, India and Turkey are the major producers of opium for medicines. Suppliers are licensed and closely monitored by an international control board that requires strict monitoring of the crop."

Reinert estimates the global need to be 10,000 metric tons of opium. As mentioned, Afghanistan produces more than 4,000 metric tons of opium. This amount could greatly contribute to the world supply of morphine and codeine.

The Plant of Joy

2005-10-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

The opium extracted from poppy plants has been used to ease peoples' trouble since possibly as early as 4,000 BC. Many civilizations, including the Sumerian, Greek, and Egyptians, used this plant as a means of relieving sorrow. Ancient people either ate parts of the flower or made them into drinks. By the 7th century, the Turkish and Islamic cultures of western Asia discovered that the plant was most effective when smoked. Even today, in some parts of the Middle East, poppy tea is served to mourners at funerals to ease their pain. Greek physicians also used the plant. One Greek physician wrote about the many things opium could cure, including chronic headaches, melancholy, and "the trouble to which women are subject." Even though opium obviously does not cure these ailments, the physicians who prescribed saw its uplifting effects as cures. Some physicians even believed that the poppy plant was a gift from God, to be used as a "Destroyer of Grief."

In the 15th century, a man known as Paracelsus made an important discovery concerning opium. It was discovered that the alkaloids in opium are significantly less soluble in water than in alcohol. So Paracelsus made a sort of "witch's brew," which he called laudanum, out of opium, brandy, and some extra ingredients. These ingredients were later refined by the English physician, Thomas Sydenha, during late 1600s.

By the late 1700s, most of the world's poppy plantations were controlled by the British East India Company. In the mid 1800s, when opium imports increased greatly, even children were introduced to opiates in the form of syrups. Parents used these as a way to keep their children calm and soothed. People viewed opiates, such as heroin, as mere medicines and were unaware of their addictive potential.

Opium was used in China as a recreational drug long before the British East India Company had the monopoly on poppy plants. Although the drug had been outlawed by the Imperial Chinese court, it was still widely sold. In 1839, however, the emperor took action. He ordered the confiscation of 20,000 barrels of opium. The British, who were at the time making money from opium, were not very happy about the confiscation. They fought back and attacked the port-city of Canton. This was the beginning of the First Opium War. Though the British won, peace did not last very long as the Second Opium War began and ended in 1856. The British were once again victorious, and there was more opium in China than ever before. By the end of the 19th century, more than one-fourth of the male population in China was addicted to opium.

Source:
A Brief History of Opium

Driving Under the Influence of Poppy Seeds

2005-10-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

A man in Chicago, Charles Hausberg, was convicted of making an illegal U-turn resulting in the death of a 15-year-old. However, he was acquitted claiming that he had been under the influence of morphine after eating poppy seed muffins. There was indeed high opiate level detected in Hausberg's blood and urine. Hausberg claimed that he had eaten quite a few poppy seed muffins between the night before and the time of the accident. He was let go on the basis that he could not be accused of taking an illegal drug.

Cynthia Woods, a chemist at the Northern Illinois Crime Lab, and James O'Donnell, a pharmacologist hired as an expert witness for Hausberg, both confirmed Hausberg's claim saying that poppy seeds contain opiates. However, it is hard to believe that Hausberg had eaten enough poppy seed muffins in such a short amount of time to impair his driving skills. Some people believe that Hausberg's excuse was not entirely true because the opiate level in poppy seed muffins is not enough to induce a "high." Even if Hausberg did eat a lot of poppy seed muffins, he would have become full long before experiencing any sort of judgment impairing effects. Therefore, Hausberg is either a dirty liar or merely a man who loves his poppy seed muffins.

Sources:
United Press International
Poppy seeds tied to DUI acquittal
Will poppy-seed bagels cause you to fail a drug test?

Mutant Poppies

2005-10-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

A new kind of "mutant" poppy has been developed that produces ingredients for making useful medicine instead of morphine. The altered plant was actually introduced several years ago in 1995, but studies of the mutant poppy were not published until recently. In the mutant poppy, there is a glitch which prevents the normal process of making morphine and it accumulates two compounds, orapavine and thebaine, the latter of which is used to make certain medicines.

Before, pharmaceutical companies needed to convert morphine into thebaine to make a variety of painkillers, such as buprenorphine, oxycodone, naloxone, and naltrexone. However, it is said that starting with thebaine is more efficient, and the new type of mutant poppy makes this possible.

Peter Facchini of the University of Calgary in Alberta, who studies poppy biochemistry, says that, though low-morphine mutant poppies are often common and easily found, it is hard to find a mutant poppy that produces something useful like thebaine, a commercial drug precursor.

Source:
Scientists Develop Mutant Poppies

Civil War Started Drug Addiction?

2005-10-21T23:52:00.000-07:00

Very similar to the increase of smoking and related diseases in United States after WWII due to the wide distribution of cigarettes to American GIs during 1940s, Civil War is believed to have resulted a massive narcotics addiction with soldiers coming back home addicted to morphine, a painkilling substance used for wounded soldiers. However, is this entirely true?

Drug addiction in the English-speaking part of the world was almost unhear of in the beginning of the 19th century. But it became common at the end of the 19th century with estimated 200,000 addicts in the United States alone in 1900. The most increase in addicts occurred in the late 1800s during and after the American Civil War.

Because of this statistic, Civil War is commonly blamed for the increase in narcotic abuse during the late 1800s. Morphine was widely used during the war to treat the wounded. Many blame the reckless fashion in which the drug was used by the army surgeons for the surplus of morphine addiction, or "the army disease" as people of the time called it.

Surgeons during Civil War had no knowledge about addiction caused by morphine. They handed out morphine narcotics to the wounded in dangerous doses unknowing of the consequences. Nearly ten million opium pills were issued to Union soldiers, along with 2.8 million ounces of other opium preparations.

With such reckless use, it's no wonder that there were so many narcotic addicts, comprising mostly of war veterans, after the war. Not quite. Though the Civil War had some impact on the increase in narcotics abuse, the war veterans were not the major abusers of narcotics. According to some surveys taken in the midwest during the late 1800s, most of the abusers were women who took drugs for neuralgia, morning sickness, or menstrual pain. Also, narcotics could be found in commonly prescribed medications of the time, such as laudanum and paregoric, inexpensive opiates that were easily accessible by anyone.

Given these facts, it is clear that the drug culture cannot be blamed by any one event.

Source:

Did the U.S. Civil War create 500,000 morphine addicts?

OxyContin - "Prescribed" Narcotic

2005-10-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

OxyContin is an opiate, similar to morphine and heroin. Its a prescription drug that helps people suffering from severe, chronic pain. However, OxyContin is much stronger than the other opiate counterparts. Its painkilling ingredient, oaycodone, is twice as potent as morphine, according to a report by the U.S. General Accounting Office. OxyContin pills are not harmful when used as instructed. The pills dissolve and release oxycodone gradually during the 12-hour period. The gradual release of oxycodone makes the drug safe for patients and alleviates their pain for 12 hours.

As OxyContin became popular its sales exceeded $1 billion in 2001 and 2002. Unfortunately, so has its abuse. Pure oxycodone appeared in almost 15,000 emergency room reports in 2002, up from just 100 in 1996, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network. A national survey on drug abuse estimated that illegal use of OxyContin quadrupled between since 1999.

According to the proper instructions on taking OxyContin, the pills should be swallowed whole. People who abuse the drug may chew the pills, crush and snort them, or dissolve and inject them intravenously. However, these techniques cause oxycodone to be released all at once, causing the potent ingredient to rush into the body at high dose. "If you chew OxyContin, you can get a very strong dose all at once," James Zacny of the University of Chicago School of Medicine told Current Science.

Oxycodone in the body at such high dosage has a powerful effect on the brain's reinforcement and reward centers. Those areas are responsible for the pleasure people feel when they eat, drink, or are comforted. The centers also causes craving.

"Any prescription drug abuse is wrong, illegal, and very dangerous. It's not fun and games. It can be a decision that can affect your life."

Robin Hogen, vice president of public affairs for Purdue Pharma, speaks the truth. Like other opiates, oxycodone can depress respiration.

"Recreational use of OxyContin is very serious. This is a dangerous drug. If you take a dose that exceeds what your body can tolerate, you can die."

Everyone should heed to these words of Russell Portenoy, a pain specialist at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. "Do not abuse this stuff."

Source:

Pain killer: abusing the drug OxyContin is a prescription for disaster

Smugglers Are Winning

2005-10-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

The hardest part of selling drugs is not finding a consumer or even the sale itself; it is actually getting them to the streets, which proves to be the biggest challenge.

In the early 90's the first generation of "high tech" smuggling started. The techniques they used were placing drugs on statues, hollowing out compartments in cars and hiding them in consumer electronics. Each new technique is effective for about 6 months to a year because that is about how long it takes the customs officials to catch on. This also works the other way with it taking at least 6 months for the smugglers to find a new way to get through customs.

There are two major fronts in the war on drugs, America and Iran. Iran is situated in the worst possible place for a country that outlaws drugs because it shares its large mountainous boarder with both Afghanistan and Pakistan. That makes Iran an ideal land bridge between the heroin producing nations and their market which includes the Gulf region and Western Europe. The Iranian police have seized over 3,394 kg of opium in the last week. This is a very insignificant number because its takes about 10 kilos of opium to create one kilo of heroin. Heroin sells for about $113 per gram. 3,394 kg of opium comes out to be about 3.5 million USD of heroin. This is about .001 percent of the estimated 178 billion dollar crop of 2005. Unfortunately, this is the usual amount of drugs that is found a month, which means that most of the drugs coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan will make it to their final destination. This also means that the smugglers will have plenty of money to pay more for protection and even better technology to smuggle their product into foreign countries.

Source:

2005 Afghan opium harvest begins

Getting High Off Poppy Seed Tea

2005-10-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

Poppy Seed Tea - A Cheap, Effective Morphine High

Above link contains a step by step process of brewing a poppy seed tea to achieve "a cheap, effective morphine high."

"But don't they treat the seeds to make them drug free?" one might ask.
According to the author of the brewing process, the only two procedures done on the poppy seeds are washing and sterilizing them. However, washing them does not completely remove the opiates from the seeds. Therefore, the pain relieving effect can be achieved using the regular poppy seeds that you can find in a store. The effect is not the same as that of a pure morphine. The main active alkaloid is morphine but other alkaloids, such as codeine, noscapine, papaverine, and thebaine, are also present in the tea, hindering the full euphoric effect of pure morphine.

The writer claims that he is not promoting the abuse of this method to achieve high. He warns that opiates are addictive and are dangerous when taken in large quantity. He also makes it clear that the instructions are not on how to get high but simply on "a cheap way to get pain relief if you can't afford to see a doctor."
However, despite his concerned warning in the beginning, he later writes that he wants you to enjoy getting "pinned" (to achieve euphoric effect).

It's Planting Season

2005-10-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Early October marks the beginning of the poppy growing season in Afghanistan where in the last two years the poppy crop has reached prewar numbers. This is substantial because the poppy farmers were protected by the Taliban who ruled the land before the US involvement. This brings up the question of why the numbers are so high. The increase is due to the corruption in law enforcement and the lack willingness to do something about it. Hamid Karzai is in full support of the US proposal to remove governors and police chiefs who are allied with the drug smugglers. Karzai says that the removal of governors and police chiefs will not be easy because locals must stay in power to maintain the rule of the land. The reason drug smugglers can move freely through out the country is because of money. Local officials believe in a new law, If you can pay the bribe you are not guilty. With the Taliban this was not a problem because they were not easily bribed (or at all). A large problem plaguing the Afghan population is that in border towns where the smugglers start their trade routes drug abuse is on the rise. This was not a problem in the times of the Taliban due to the strict rules of the regime. Then, if the poppy crop is at all time high in Afghanistan even after the removal of Taliban, what made the Taliban regime so bad that they needed to be removed?

Source:

It's opium-planting time - By GRAEME SMITH

Reducing Morphine's Addictive Potential

2005-10-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that heroin, the notorious and highly addictive narcotic, was first marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute? Unfortunately, as it turns out today, heroin is just as addictive and has even higher potency than morphine.

Heroin, or diacetylmorphine, is an alkaloid opioid. It is 3,6-diacetyl derivative of morphine, hence its name diacetylmorphine. Heroin was first synthesized in 1874 by a British researcher, C.R.A. Wright, working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London. Wright was experimenting with combining morphine with various acids. He produced a more potent form of morphine that we now call diacetylmorphine by boiling anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride. Diacetylmorphine turned out to be ten times more powerful than morphine. And, best of all, after the analysis by F.M. Pierce of Owens College, Manchester, it was thought to be non-addictive.

At the time, Heinrich Dreser of Bayer in Elberfeld, Germany, was seeking a substitute for morphine, which depressed respiration, sometimes killing severely injured patient, and proved to be highly addictive if used in reckless fashion. In 1898, Dreser noticed the high potency and non-addictiveness of diacetylmorphine without any depressant effect on breathing. He immediately began manufacturing diacetylemorphine under the brand name "Heroin." It was marketed as a non-addictive substitute for morphine and cough medicine for children.

But in fact it was far more addictive than morphine. In the 1920s in the United States there were an estimated 200,000 heroin addicts. The United States Government and the League of Nations responded by outlawing it, beginning in 1923. Soon all the pharmaceutical companies stopped manufacturing diacetylmorphine and its supply diminished.

Heroin is extremely addictive partly because its long-term use increases tolerance, requiring the user to take larger doses to achieve the same pain-relieving effect. Heroine has a similar effect as endorphins, the natural opioids of the body that is less potent. Endorphins are regularly released in the brain and nerves and alleviate pain. Heronin competes with the endorphins for the endorphin receptors found on the surfaces of some body cells. The body responds by reducing or even stopping the production of endorphins when heroin is consumed. Lack of either endorphins or heroin results in the extreme symptoms including pain, making heroine users dependent on heroin to make up for the reduced production of endorphins. Heroin addiction remains a serious problem today.

Sources:

Wikipedia - Heroin

Brief History of Heroin

Get your Diacetylmorphine

2005-10-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

During the first decade of the 20th century Diacetylmorphine, better known as Heroin, was marketed because of its lung cleaning capabilities. Around 1911, it turned out that not only was Heroin addictive but also it depressed breathing. This little blunder by Heinrich Dreser, the head of Bayer's pharmacology is linked to today's social and political problems stemming from Poppy growing nations to the rehabilitation centers of America. For years now Poppies and Opium have been the major export of Afghanistan. This had been a grand issue ever since the war on terrorism started. In an article(1) from the sirs database the Afghan President Hamid Karzai talks about fighting drug wars. He says that it is his top priority because the money made goes to undermining a new democracy. (2) Herion has also created social problems in neighboring Pakistan. Over 500,000 people abuse Herion in the country of only 65 million. This problem is only growing due to the lack of Detox centers and the easy access to Heroin. These problems all stemmed from Heinrich Dreser's neglect to follow up his study.

Sources:

U.N.: Afghanistan Sees Increase in Opium

Pakistan: Drug Abuse Grows Along with Afghan Poppy Crop

Morphine - A Double-Edged Sword

2005-10-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

"We need some morphine over here!" screamed a US combat medic in the battle of Bastogne during WWII.

Morphine was widely used during World War II as a painkiller. Squibb, a pharmaceutical company at that time, developed a way for medics to administer on the front lines a controlled amount of morphine to wounded soldiers. What Squibb introduced was called a morphine syrette, which was like a miniature toothpaste tube that contained the morphine. Field medics were allowed to administer morphine to wounded soldiers to alleviate pain. Morphine, along with coedine, is still used today as one of the prime painkillers. It has eased pain that is otherwise unbearable for most people.

Going back in time, the benefits of morphine was quickly noted in Europe after Paracelsus, the noted Swiss alchemist, introduced laudanum, an alcohol extract of opium. It became a staple treatment for diarrhea pain, and insomnia. Queen Victoria herself used it, and numerous children in the Victorian era were put to bed with Godfrey's Cordial, which contained a hefty dose of opium.

However, there is a darker side to the history of morphine. As Dr. Joe Schawrcz puts it:

"It probably has both alleviated and caused more misery than any other chemical in history" (Schawrcz 233)

The ancient Sumerians called the poppy (the plant which opium is extracted from) as the "joy plant" because of its euphoria-inducing properties. Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner during the early 1900s named it "morphine" after the Greek god of dreams. It not only alleviated pain and induced sleep but also was capable of triggering an euphoric dream-like state. Lured by the pleasures induced by opium, people began smoking opium and started having "morphine parties," during which people injected each other with morphine using quaint, a specially designed syringes. However, it became apparent that smoking opium was addictive. Soldiers who had been treated for pain with morphine in reckless fashion returned from the Franco-Prussian and American Civil Wars as addicts. Today, a huge black market exists for heroin, a synthetic derivative of morphine.

Beware of the Poppy Seed Bagels!

2005-10-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

Do you love bagels? I have them all the time for breakfast before school! I prefer the ones topped with poppy or sesame seeds over the plain ones because they give that added flavor but they don't cause bad breath like the onion/garlic bagels do. But now, after having read Dr. Joe Schwarcz's essay titled "Heady Times at the Bakery" in his book, The Fly in the Ointment, I would much rather have a plain bagel.

According to Schwarcz, the director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, the amount of poppy seeds found on a single bagel is sensitive enough to cause positive results on drug tests for opiates! Matter of fact, for at least 6000 years, poppy seeds have been used to derive opium. The ancient Sumerians referred to the poppy as the "joy plant" because of its "euphoria inducing properties." Ancient Egyptian physicians are believed to be the first to suggest a medical use for the plant in the famed Ebers Papyrus, a document compiling medical writings written between 3000 and 1500 B.C. An ancient Greek scholar in the first century A.D. wrote a scientific thesis describing the technique of collecting poppy seeds from the uripe pods of Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. The technique is still used today on the poppy plantations of Afghanistan, India, China, and Pakistan.

Morphine, a derivative of opium, saw its usefulness as an effective painkiller in modern medicine. But because of its potential for abuse, patients administered with morphine needed to maintain vigilance against its abuse. And because one can abuse morphine or heroin, a synthetic derivative of morphine, standard drug tests look for traces of opiates. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, consumption of a single poppy seed bagel is enough to cause a positive test result. For instance, a Florida parolee had eaten a poppy seed bagel before undergoing his drug test and the test was able to picked up traces of morphine in his urine! He swore that he had not used any drugs and yet he was almost sent back to jail all because he had eaten some poppy seed bagels for breakfast. (and thus my new fondness for plain bagels)

Weblog Started!

2005-09-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

This weblog is dedicated solely as a project for Dr. Crane's Advanced Chemistry course in the Bergen County Academies.

the members who will be posting on this blog are:
Hyung Joon (Marc) Kim
Simon Stam
Amanda Omeljanuik