Opium and the Law

Humans have known of and used opium for nearly 5000 years, mainly for medical purposes. Its abuse has been around as long. Governmental and international laws and licences regulate the produchon of P. somniferum, and only the clinical use of narcohcs is legal and reasonable. 

The next major convention on opium occurred in 1911 in the Netherlands. A declaration was made at the 1911 convention which advocated all nations to institute domestic opium laws. However, agreements made at the convention were meaningless because individual nations ultimately ignored the statutes. Time and time again, international efforts to control opium consumption were curbed by vested interests. The opium trade was critical to many countries economies, and the tax revenues were too substantial for many governments to want to effect any change. 

While there were still many disputes between individual nations over the terms of opium production and distribution, international action finally proved effective, achieving an 80 percent reduction in worldwide opium production, from 42,000 tons in 1906 to 16,000 tons by 1934. Over the next several decades, international oversight continued, at times lulling (particularly during World War II), but at other times booming, especially after the creation of the United Nations following World War II. However, total control over opium has never been achieved, and illegal opium trade continues to this day. One reason it is so difficult to control opium production is that its cultivation is necessary to supply the lawful pharmaceutical industry. 

The creation of tougher national and international laws in the late twentieth century has resulted in a slight transformation of the opium trade. Laws have become stricter and limited success has been made in raising public awareness concerning the dangerous nature of opium and its constituents. The trade has not stopped, however it has only changed hands. In the past, the demand for opium created a large and complex distribution chain, complete with opium producers, suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and consumers. Today, that trade, while now primarily in the form of nonmedical pharmaceutical use and heroin, is equally complex and perhaps even more profitable than ever. 

The demand for opium remains—it is only the legality of the trade that has adjusted. Most nations today have laws banning the recreational use of opium and its constituents, as well as a system for controlling their use, so illegal drug traders have adjusted their efforts to exploit the weaknesses of the system. 

Which brings us back to the mushrooms, and the topic of the law. In the original writing of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, our Federal drug law, there are only four plants listed as being "Scheduled Drugs." In Schedule I there was Marijuana (later defined as the plant Cannabis spp.) and Peyote (later defined as the botanical Lophophora williamsii) in Schedule II there was Opium poppy and poppy straw, and Coca leaves. It is generally known that commercial opium comes from the plant Papaver somniferum and that commercial coca comes... 

Some of the old laws, such as those that closed opium dens, were enacted before much was known about how drugs affect the human body. The Harrison Narcotic Act was adopted in 1914 amid fears of violence from drug-addicted minorities and criminals. It was meant to regulate the sale of opium and cocaine, but the legislation ultimately banned most mind drugs for all but medical use. 

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