PS268 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Thomas De Quincey, Opioid Overdose, Opioid Receptor
Document Summary
Produced and available for collection for only few days of opium poppy"s life. Cut made into unripe seed pods, white substance oozes out, oxidizes to red-brown and scraped and collected into small balls. Most likely origin is hot, dry, middle eastern country. Papaver somiferum produced substance that eased pain and suffering. Important in greek medicine: galen claimed it as a cure-all. Recreational use also common opium cakes and candies sold everywhere on streets. 1805 thomas de quincey purchased laudanum and wrote the confessions of an. Elizabeth barrett browning/samuel taylor coleridge did as well. Opium changes way users perceives the world: opium eater too happy to observe motion of time. De quincey, for long periods unable to write due to opium dependence. 1644 tobacco smoking forbade: did not last long, but increased opium smoking. Smoking tobacco and eating opium existed side by side. Addiction of opium took edge off tobacco craving. Opium smoking resulted in rapid effect compared to oral use.
