A brief history of opium

opioids.com: A brief history of opium

• c.3400 B.C.
  The opium poppy is cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. The Sumerians refer to it as Hul Gil, the 'joy plant.' The Sumerians would soon pass along the plant and its euphoric effects to the Assyrians. The art of opium poppy-culling would continue from the Assyrians to the Babylonians who in turn would pass their knowledge onto the Egyptians.

• c.1300 B.C.
  In the capital city of Thebes, Egyptians begin cultivation of opium thebaicum, grown in their famous poppy fields. The opium trade flourishes during the reign of Thutmose IV, Akhenaton and King Tutankhamen. The trade route included the Phoenicians and Minoans who move the profitable item across the Mediterranean Sea into Greece, Carthage, and Europe.

• c.1100 B.C.
  On the island of Cyprus, the "Peoples of the Sea" craft surgical-quality culling knives to harvest opium, which they would cultivate, trade and smoke before the fall of Troy.

• c. 460 B.C.
  Hippocrates, "the father of medicine", dismisses the magical attributes of opium but acknowledges its usefulness as a narcotic and styptic in treating internal diseases, diseases of women and epidemics.

• 330 B.C.
  Alexander the Great introduces opium to the people of Persia and India.

• A.D. 400
  Opium thebaicum, from the Egyptian fields at Thebes, is first introduced to China by Arab traders.

• 1020
  Avicenna of Persia teaches that opium is "the most powerful of stupefacients."

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