https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-heroin-morphine-and-opiates
What Is Opium?
Opium comes from the milky sap of a flower called the opium poppy. The earliest reference to opium use and the cultivation of opium poppies comes from
Mesopotamia around 3,400 B.C.
The ancient Sumerians—who inhabited the southernmost region of Mesopotamia in modern-day Iraq and Kuwait—referred to the bright red poppy flowers as
hul gil, “the joy plant.”
Opium cultivation spread to the
ancient Greeks, Persians and Egyptians. Opium use in
ancient Egypt flourished under the reign of King
Tutankhamen, around 1333-1324 B.C., and the Greek author Homer referred to opium’s healing powers in the
Odyssey.
These ancient societies used opium to help people sleep, to relieve pain and even to calm crying children. There is also some evidence that opium-based medicines were used as anesthesia during surgery. They may also have used the drug recreationally, though they probably weren’t aware of its addictive effects.
Opium was likely introduced to China and East Asia in the sixth or seventh century A.D. through trade along the
Silk Road, which connected the Mediterranean cultures of Europe to central Asia, India and China. The region stretching from Afghanistan and Pakistan eastward into India, Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand still produces much of the world’s opium poppies.
