Some opium has been found to be contaminated with lead. The source of lead in opium is still unclear, possibly due to contamination from equipment used to process the opium, intentional adulteration of opium with lead to increase its weight, or from growing opium poppies in contaminated soil. 9, 10 Lomax, Elizabeth (1973). "The Uses and Abuses Of Opiates In Nineteenth-Century England". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 47 (2): 167–176. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44447528. PMID 4584236 . Retrieved May 31, 2022.

E. Guerra Doce (January 1, 2006). "Evidencias del consumo de drogas en Europa durante la Prehistoria". Trastornos Adictivos (in Spanish). 8 (1): 53–61. doi: 10.1016/S1575-0973(06)75106-6. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008 . Retrieved May 10, 2007. (includes image) Pure heroin is a white powder that tastes bitter. Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at risk of overdose or death.Opium prohibition in China began in 1729, yet was followed by nearly two centuries of increasing opium use. A massive destruction of opium by an emissary of the Chinese Daoguang Emperor in an attempt to stop opium smuggling by the British led to the First Opium War (1839–1842), in which Britain defeated China. After 1860, opium use continued to increase with widespread domestic production in China. By 1905, an estimated 25 percent of the male population were regular consumers of the drug. Recreational use of opium elsewhere in the world remained rare into late in the 19th century, as indicated by ambivalent reports of opium usage. [44] In 1906, 41,000 tons were produced, but because 39,000 tons of that year's opium were consumed in China, overall usage in the rest of the world was much lower. [48] These figures from 1906 have been criticized as overestimates. [49] A Chinese opium house; photographed in 1902 The Persian physician Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn ibn Sina ("Avicenna") described opium as the most powerful of the stupefacients, in comparison to mandrake and other highly effective herbs, in The Canon of Medicine. The text lists medicinal effects of opium, such as analgesia, hypnosis, antitussive effects, gastrointestinal effects, cognitive effects, respiratory depression, neuromuscular disturbances, and sexual dysfunction. It also refers to opium's potential as a poison. Avicenna describes several methods of delivery and recommendations for doses of the drug. [24] This classic text was translated into Latin in 1175 and later into many other languages and remained authoritative until the 19th century. [25] Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu used opium in the 14th-century Ottoman Empire to treat migraine headaches, sciatica, and other painful ailments. [26] Reintroduction to Western medicine [ edit ] Latin translation of Avicenna's Canon of Medicine, 1483 Simon O'Dochartaigh. "HON Mother & Child Glossary, Meconium". hon.ch. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021 . Retrieved April 4, 2016. Inglis, Lucy, Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium, Pan Macmillan, London, 2018. **Review: Julie Peakman: "Not Just Smelling the Flowers", History Today History Today Vol. 68/10, October 2018, pp.102–103.

Some competition came from the newly independent United States, which began to compete in Guangzhou, selling Turkish opium in the 1820s. Portuguese traders also brought opium from the independent Malwa states of western India, although by 1820, the British were able to restrict this trade by charging "pass duty" on the opium when it was forced to pass through Bombay to reach an entrepot. [20]a b c d e Brown Richard Harvey (2002). "The Opium Trade And Opium Policies In India, China, Britain, And The United States: Historical Comparisons And Theoretical Interpretations". Asian Journal of Social Science. 30 (3): 623. doi: 10.1163/156853102320945420. The earliest clear description of the use of opium as a recreational drug in China came from Xu Boling, who wrote in 1483 that opium was "mainly used to aid masculinity, strengthen sperm and regain vigor", and that it "enhances the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies". He also described an expedition sent by the Ming dynasty Chenghua Emperor in 1483 to procure opium for a price "equal to that of gold" in Hainan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Shaanxi, where it is close to the western lands of Xiyu. A century later, Li Shizhen listed standard medical uses of opium in his renowned Compendium of Materia Medica (1578), but also wrote that "lay people use it for the art of sex," in particular the ability to "arrest seminal emission". This association of opium with sex continued in China until the end of the 19th century. Thelwall, A. S. (1839). The iniquities of the opium trade with China; being a development of the main causes which exclude the merchants of Great Britain from the advantages of an unrestricted commercial intercourse with that vast empire. With extracts from authentic documents. London: Wm. H. Allen and Co. Before the 1920s, regulation in Britain was controlled by pharmacists. Pharmacists who were found to have prescribed opium for illegitimate uses and anyone found to have sold opium without proper qualifications would be prosecuted. [94] With the passing of the Rolleston Act in Britain in 1926, doctors were allowed to prescribe opiates such as morphine and heroin if they believed their patients demonstrated a medical need. Because addiction was viewed as a medical problem rather than an indulgence, doctors were permitted to allow patients to wean themselves off opiates rather than cutting off any opiate use altogether. [95] The passing of the Rolleston Act put the control of opium use in the hands of medical doctors instead of pharmacists. Later in the 20th century, addiction to opiates, especially heroin in young people, continued to rise and so the sale and prescription of opiates was limited to doctors in treatment centers. If these doctors were found to be prescribing opiates without just cause, then they could lose their license to practice or prescribe drugs. [95] Heroin (diacetylmorphine) is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2 to 3 times more potent. A highly addictive drug, heroin exhibits euphoric ("rush"), anxiolytic and analgesic central nervous system properties.