Editing Opium (section)

=== Harvesting and processing ===
[[File:Harvesting opium.jpg|thumb|left|Harvesting opium]]
When grown for opium production, the skin of the ripening pods of these poppies is scored by a sharp blade at a time carefully chosen so that rain, wind, and dew cannot spoil the exudation of white, milky [[latex]], usually in the afternoon. Incisions are made while the pods are still raw, with no more than a slight yellow tint, and must be shallow to avoid penetrating hollow inner chambers or ''loculi'' while cutting into the lactiferous vessels. In the Indian Subcontinent, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Iran, the special tool used to make the incisions is called a ''nushtar'' or "nishtar" (from [[Persian language|Persian]], meaning a lancet) and carries three or four blades three millimeters apart, which are scored upward along the pod. Incisions are made three or four times at intervals of two to three days, and each time the "poppy tears", which dry to a sticky brown resin, are collected the following morning. One acre harvested in this way can produce three to five kilograms of raw opium.<ref name="opioids.com">{{cite book |author=Anil Aggrawal |author-link=Anil Aggrawal |year=1995 |title=Narcotic Drugs |chapter=CHAPTER 2: THE STORY OF OPIUM |chapter-url=http://opioids.com/narcotic-drugs/chapter-2.html |publisher=National Book Trust |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-237-1383-0 |access-date=May 6, 2007 |archive-date=May 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070519140512/http://opioids.com/narcotic-drugs/chapter-2.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the [[Soviet Union]], pods were typically scored horizontally, and opium was collected three times, or else one or two collections were followed by isolation of opiates from the ripe capsules. Oil poppies, an alternative strain of ''P. somniferum'', were also used for production of opiates from their capsules and stems.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1969-01-01_4_page002.html|title=UNODC – Bulletin on Narcotics – 1969 Issue 4 – 001|website=Unodc.org|access-date=June 11, 2022}}</ref> A traditional Chinese method of harvesting opium latex involved cutting off the heads and piercing them with a coarse needle then collecting the dried opium 24 to 48 hours later.

Raw opium may be sold to a merchant or broker on the black market, but it usually does not travel far from the field before it is refined into '''morphine base''', because the pungent, jelly-like form of raw opium is bulkier and harder to smuggle. Crude laboratories in the field are capable of refining opium into morphine base by a simple [[acid-base extraction]]. A sticky, brown paste, morphine base is pressed into bricks and sun-dried, and can either be smoked, prepared into other forms or processed into heroin.<ref name="Frontline" />

Other methods of preparation (besides smoking), include processing into regular opium [[tincture]] (''tinctura opii''), [[laudanum]], [[paregoric]] (''tinctura opii camphorata''), [[herbal wine]] (e.g., ''vinum opii''), opium powder (''pulvis opii''), opium [[sirup]] (''sirupus opii'') and opium extract (''extractum opii'').<ref name=Belgische>Belgische Farmacopee, 5de uitgave, 1966; part 3</ref> Vinum opii is made by combining sugar, [[white wine]], [[cinnamon]], and [[cloves]]. Opium syrup is made by combining 97.5 part sugar syrup with 2.5 parts opium extract. Opium extract (''extractum opii'') finally can be made by macerating raw opium with water. To make opium extract, 20 parts water are combined with 1 part raw opium which has been boiled for 5 minutes (the latter to ease mixing).<ref name=Belgische />

Heroin is widely preferred because of increased potency. One study in postaddicts found heroin to be approximately 2.2 times more potent than [[morphine]] by weight with a similar duration; at these relative quantities, they could distinguish the drugs subjectively but had no preference.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=W. R. Martin |author2=H. F. Fraser |date=September 1, 1961|title=A comparative study of subjective and physiological effects of heroin and morphine administered intravenously in postaddicts|journal=Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics|volume=133|issue=3|pages=388–399|url=http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/133/3/388|access-date=June 6, 2007|pmid=13767429}}</ref> Heroin was also found to be twice as potent as morphine in surgical anesthesia.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Robinson SL, Rowbotham DJ, Smith G |date=July 1991|title=Morphine compared with diamorphine. A comparison of dose requirements and side-effects after hip surgery|journal=Anaesthesia|volume=46|issue=7|pages=538–40|pmid=1862890|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2044.1991.tb09650.x|s2cid=35289009|doi-access=free}}</ref> Morphine is converted into heroin by a simple chemical reaction with [[acetic anhydride]], followed by purification.<ref>{{cite web |title=Interpol |url=http://www.interpol.int/Public/Drugs/heroin/default.asp |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20010924215045/http://www.interpol.int/public/drugs/heroin/default.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=2001-09-24 |access-date=May 9, 2006 }}</ref><ref name="UNODC 2005">{{cite web|url=http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_1_chap1_opium.pdf|title=UNODC World Drug Report 2005|access-date=May 2, 2007}}</ref> Especially in Mexican production, opium may be converted directly to "[[black tar heroin]]" in a simplified procedure. This form predominates in the U.S. west of the Mississippi. Relative to other preparations of heroin, it has been associated with a dramatically decreased rate of HIV transmission among [[intravenous drug use]]rs (4 percent in Los Angeles vs. 40 percent in New York) due to technical requirements of injection, although it is also associated with greater risk of venous [[Sclerosis (medicine)|sclerosis]] and [[necrotizing fasciitis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2004/01/5049/black-tar-heroin-use-explains-lower-hiv-levels-among-injection-drug-users-i/|author1=Jeff Sheehy |author2=Corinna Kaarlela |title=Black tar heroin use explains lower HIV levels among intravenous drug users in the Western U.S|date=January 26, 2004|access-date=May 24, 2017}}</ref>