"Opium. Known as 'The Mother of All Analgesics,' it's probably the greatest pain killer ever discovered. Opium is the parent of morphine, heroin, laudanum, Darvocet, Darvon, and many other pain relievers. Opium causes poets to rhapsodize and nations to go to war. 'Religion... is the opium of the people,' said Karl Marx, but some people insist on the real thing. In Opium for the Masses, Jim Hogshire tells you everything you want to know about the beloved poppy and its amazing properties [...] As he reveals the secrets of the seductive opium poppy, he tells the sad story of prescription drugs: doctors, drug makers and governments prohibiting natural remedies in favor of harsh synthetic derivatives. Opium for the Masses includes rare photographs and detailed illustrations that bring this magnificent plant to life."--From cover.

A practical guide to growing and using poppies and other botanical wonders.

A complete guide to cultivating and harvesting the beautiful opium poppy. The opium poppy is a potent plant that has been cultivated and used for thousands of years to alleviate suffering. The use of plant substances as alternatives to synthetic medicines is resurging due to their beneficial properties and less-toxic side effects. For example, many cancer and HIV sufferers are growing opium for personal use. Opium Poppy Garden is the only book available that describes the cultivation, harvest and pharmacology of opium in a format that combines literary and instructional writing. The heart of the book is the tale of Ch'ien, a young Chinese man who travels from Costa Rica to Columbia to grow an opium garden in the manner his Taoist grandfather taught him. The story, in conjunction with "The Cultivator's Diary" and the technical appendix, provide the reader with a working knowledge of this plant.

At the beginning of the 19th century, opium was widely used as an everyday remedy for common ailments. By the 1920s, it was classified as a dangerous drug. In an examination of the social context of drug taking in Victorian England, the book explains this decisive change in attitude. This revised edition examines how and why restrictive policies were put in place in the early decades of the 20th century and reveals fresh perspectives on the motivations which survive in the formation of current drug policies.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A renowned authority on the secret world of opium recounts his descent into ruinous obsession with one of the world’s oldest and most seductive drugs, in this harrowing memoir of addiction and recovery. A natural-born collector with a nose for exotic adventure, San Diego–born Steven Martin followed his bliss to Southeast Asia, where he found work as a freelance journalist. While researching an article about the vanishing culture of opium smoking, he was inspired to begin collecting rare nineteenth-century opium-smoking equipment. Over time, he amassed a valuable assortment of exquisite pipes, antique lamps, and other opium-related accessories—and began putting it all to use by smoking an extremely potent form of the drug called chandu. But what started out as recreational use grew into a thirty-pipe-a-day habit that consumed Martin’s every waking hour, left him incapable of work, and exacted a frightful physical and financial toll. In passages that will send a chill up the spine of anyone who has ever lived in the shadow of substance abuse, Martin chronicles his efforts to control and then conquer his addiction—from quitting cold turkey to taking “the cure” at a Buddhist monastery in the Thai countryside. At once a powerful personal story and a fascinating historical survey, Opium Fiend brims with anecdotes and lore surrounding the drug that some have called the methamphetamine of the nineteenth-century. It recalls the heyday of opium smoking in the United States and Europe and takes us inside the befogged opium dens of China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The drug’s beguiling effects are described in vivid detail—as are the excruciating pains of withdrawal—and there are intoxicating tales of pipes shared with an eclectic collection of opium aficionados, from Dutch dilettantes to hard-core addicts to world-weary foreign correspondents. A compelling tale of one man’s transformation from respected scholar to hapless drug slave, Opium Fiend puts us under opium’s spell alongside its protagonist, allowing contemporary readers to experience anew the insidious allure of a diabolical vice that the world has all but forgotten.

Here is an in-depth examination of the opium poppy--the first medicinal plant known to mankind. In Opium Poppy: Botany, Chemistry, and Pharmacology, author L. D. Kapoor provides readers with a comprehensive resource on poppy production from seed to alkaloid. He explores the opium poppy?s origin, distribution, chemistry, and uses and abuses from ancient civilizations through the present day. He covers plant and seed production and crop improvement and explores in detail the chemical and pharmaceutical by-products of the opium poppy. The book begins with a historical overview of the origin and use of opium poppy in ancient civilizations such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Chapters that follow contain detailed information on: botanical studies cytogenics and plant breeding agronomy, including insect and pest control measures physiological and anatomical studies chemical and pharmacological aspects of opium alkaloids biosynthesis and physiology of opium alkaloids the occurrence and role of alkaloids in plants the evaluation of analgesic actions of morphine in various pain models in experimental animals Opium Poppy: Botany, Chemistry, and Pharmacology is a useful reference for professionals and students of pharmacy, botany, chemistry, medicine, and pharmacology who need a better overall understanding of this ancient plant and its (potential) modern usage.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES, HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND 'It's a trip - engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering' New Statesman 'Fascinating. Pollan is the perfect guide ... curious, careful, open minded' The Guardian Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs - opium, caffeine and mescaline - and throws the fundamental strangeness of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos. In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. This ground-breaking and singular book holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds and our entanglement with the natural world.