OPIOIDS

Opium , derived from the ripe seed capsule of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), has been used for its analgesic and euphoriant effects since antiquity, with Sumerian ideograms of about 4000 BC referring to the poppy as the ‘plant of joy'.
In the developed countries the opioid drug most frequently associated with abuse and dependence is heroin. Virtually all the opioid dependence and abuse seen clinically is associated with prototypical m-agonist opioids.

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