Source: China Narcotics Control Daily
When you think of morphine, what comes to mind first? Is it a painkiller? Is it drugs? In fact, both answers are correct. Because morphine is in the hands of doctors, it is a powerful painkiller to cure diseases and save people, but in the hands of addicts, it has become a heinous drug.
Medical morphine has a light yellow, brown, white or colorless crystalline powder (or colorless transparent agent) with a central analgesic effect, as well as a sedative and cough-suppressing effect. In 1803, the French medical scientist Sequin first extracted morphine from opium, and in 1806, the 21-year-old German pharmacist Frederick Sertuna completed the same experiment, and went a step further, making the isolated morphine liquid into a crystalline powder. He was very curious about this never-before-seen crystal, and to be on the safe side, he tried to mix a small spoonful of dog food, only to find that after a few minutes the dog fell asleep on the floor and was beaten with a stick without waking up. This miraculous phenomenon excited him, and in order to explore the mystery, he ate a little himself, and as a result, he was also unconscious, and even almost died. When he woke up, he found that the compound not only made people sleep deeply, but also had analgesic effects. In 1827, the famous pharmaceutical company Merck Group officially produced and manufactured morphine on a commercial scale.
In fact, after morphine was made into a drug, because it was legal and unregulated, it gradually became a very popular commodity, and people could easily obtain it, which undoubtedly led to a great increase in the probability of non-medical abuse. According to a European study in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, even some doctors and pharmacists were "morphine addicts." Morphine was introduced to China in the late 19th century, initially by European doctors living in the Shanghai Concession for treatment, and later widely used to abstain from opium.
Morphine is the most important alkaloid in opium, so the symptoms of morphine poisoning, addiction and withdrawal are mostly similar to those of opium. The toxicity after the abuse of morphine is mainly manifested in the inhibitory effect on the central nervous system, and the paralytic effect on the respiratory center is the main cause of death. Morphine has a strong drug addiction after abuse, and it is generally tolerated after 1 to 2 weeks of continuous use. Morphine addicts who suddenly stop morphine can have withdrawal syndrome, manifested by tears, runny nose, sweating, dilated pupils, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased body temperature, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, muscle and joint pain and nerves, increased mental excitability, such as panic, restlessness, insomnia, etc., and in severe cases, there will be prostration and loss of consciousness. Long-term abuse of morphine can lead to mental depression, depression, mental and memory decline, and can cause mental disorders, hepatitis, etc., which can lead to respiratory failure and death.
Despite its serious side effects, morphine remains one of the only painkillers recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for pain relief in patients with advanced cancer, as its analgesic effect is unique among naturally occurring compounds. Every day, countless cancer patients around the world rely on morphine injections to calm themselves from pain.
Therefore, from a medical point of view, morphine has been born, and doctors have saved the lives of countless patients from the hands of the god of death through its help, and we humans have been exempt from all kinds of severe pain until now because of morphine. The great feat of morphine is not only a sign that human beings began to use pure monomer compounds as drugs, but also a sign that the initial stage of natural medicinal chemistry began to form. But sociologically, the invention of morphine allowed addicts to get rid of the restrictions on natural plants, allowing humans to use purely addictive substances in large doses for the first time, and this leap also contributed to the spread of drugs.
(The author is a police officer of the Compulsory Isolation Drug Rehabilitation Center in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, and a member of the China Writers Association)
Source: China Narcotics Control News
Photo editor: Sun Rong