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Opium is highly addictive. Tolerance (the need
for higher and higher doses to maintain the same effect) and
physical and psychological dependence develop quickly.
Withdrawal from opium causes nausea, tearing, yawning, chills,
and sweating.
| An addictive
narcotic drug derived from the unripe seedpods
of the opium poppy. Preparations of opium were
called laudanum. Derivatives of laudanum include
paregoric (a drug to treat diarrhea),
morphine
and heroin.
For centuries, opium was used
as a painkiller in the Middle and Far East. It
gained great popularity in Europe and the
European colonies in the 18th century and became
a main ingredient in patent medicines that
patients could easily obtain without a
prescription. Many people became addicted. Civil
War soldiers in pain from wounds often received
morphine. By 1900, it is estimated that more
than 200,000 people in the US were addicted to
opium and its derivatives. The US Congress
passed a law in 1909 prohibiting the manufacture
and sale of opium. |
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