What exactly is Opium, and what are the effects/dangers of smoking it?
Dear Reader, Opium is a plant product derived from the sap inside of the opium poppy’s seedpod. This poppy (papaver somniferum) grows in dry, warm climates, especially in the mountains stretching from Turkey through Central and South Asia all the way to Laos. It is increasingly being grown in South America, as well. The sap of the poppy, which is milky and opaque inside of the pod, turns thick and brown-black in color as it seeps out, after the pod has been sliced open by harvesters. This thick sap is then collected in bricks or balls and enters the black market. Opium in this raw form can be smoked or taken orally, but not injected, since it is still full of fungi and bacteria. The opium can be further processed and purified to become a range of drugs, legal and illegal, including morphine, heroin, codeine, and thebaine. The human brain already has receptors for the opiate drugs, because their chemical structures are quite similar to the endorphins the brain produces itself. Sometimes
