Background and History 5 to 93,613 in 2027, an increase of 183 percent over the 2015 fi gure (Blau 2017). Particularly troubling is the fact that the abuse rate and death rate from opioids among young adults are the highest among any age group. In 2014, for example, a total of 1,741 young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 died from opioid overdose. Th at comes out to fi ve individu- als per day throughout the year. And those numbers are only a hint of the extent of the epidemic. For every 1 overdose fatality, there were 119 emergency department visits and 22 admissions for treatment (“Abuse of Prescription (Rx) Drugs Aff ects Young Adults Most” 2016). The Opium Plant: An Introduction In its pure form, opium is a white, crystalline powder. It is ob- tained from the poppy plant ( Papaver somniferum ) that is famil- iar to many home gardeners. Th e plant is a showy annual with conspicuous white, pink, red, or purple fl owers. Th e opium is extracted from the unripe seed pods, by lightly cutting the skin of the pods and allowing a white milky fl uid (latex) to seep out. (An illustration of this process is available at Bushak 2016.) Th e fl uid is then dried to form crystalline opium. Th e poppy plant is also used for the production of other, legal, culinary products, the most common of which is poppy seeds. Poppy seeds contain very small amounts of opium and codeine, an- other product of the poppy plant. Opium destined for illegal use is generally processed before shipment to users. It is treated chemically to remove the most psychoactive part of the plant, morphine. A single pound of opium yields about two ounces of morphine. Th e morphine is then converted chemically to heroin, which is more potent than morphine itself. Th e resultant heroin, which weighs only about 10 percent the weight of the morphine from which it comes, is then formed into bricks that can be transported more easily than either opium or morphine. Its compact form makes it relatively easy to smuggle across borders and into users’ hands.
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