Drug prohibition
Videos
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in a training exercise
Huichol religion worshiped the god of Peyote, a drug.
A painting of opium ships sailing into China. Chinese attempts to suppress opium smuggling sparked the First Opium War.
Papaver somniferum. The sale of drugs in the UK was regulated by the Pharmacy Act 1868.
Opium
Videos
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chem
Opium poppy seed pod exuding latex from a cut
Poppy crop from the Malwa in India (probably Papaver somniferum var. album)
Goddess of Ecstasy figurine from Crete, dated around the Late Bronze Age
Opium users in Java during the Dutch colonial period, c. 1870