Lecture 11a: opiate narcotics (summer, 2017)

[@samcruickshanks6856]

Did you find any information on the legal production and global trade in opium in the present day? When I tried I didn't find much apart from that a substantial amount of what they refer to as "Opium Gum" from Afghanistan and the middle east is brought into Turkey and stored in warehouses before being purchased by Pharmaceutical companies and governments of Countries with national health services and being converted into morphine and other pain killer drugs in production facilities, It was also quite surprising that many countries that you wouldn't expect too like England for instance are growing limited amounts of poppies on specially licensed farms at home in an effort to be less reliant on imported Opium Gum, the amount and price of which is subject to fluctuations, Still though there's hardly any easily accessed info on the legal global trade...

[@samcruickshanks6856]

That relief carving of the person using the pipe was interesting, there seemed to be a tiny man with a rod in his hand riding the pipe like a person might control a horse or beast of burdon ,, possibly alluding to the addictive nature of opium??