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Before the article even begins it gives erroneous information: "Morphine is extracted from opium, a compound found in the seeds of the opium poppy." Edit: T

by TenOhms 10y ago

Before the article even begins it gives erroneous information: "Morphine is extracted from opium, a compound found in the seeds of the opium poppy." Edit: The research looks interesting though.

ipunchghosts 10y ago
1st sentence of wikipedia, "Morphine is a pain medication of the opiate type which is found naturally in a number of plants and animals."
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- erroneousfunk 10y ago
  Right, but the OP was interpreting the sentence to imply that that's where it comes from. Morphine medication is all synthesized.
  - irishsultan 10y ago
    Nope, otherwise farmers in Afghanistan wouldn't have switched to growing opium poppies en masse. Apparently the main issue the OP had was with the seeds part.
facetube 10y ago
It looks like an issue with wording to me, i.e. they may have meant "can in theory be, but usually isn't compared to the high cost compared to lab synthesis", but oversimplified it.
- irishsultan 10y ago
  Other way around, synthesis is more expensive (according to wikipedia). But the extraction from poppies doesn't need to involve opium as an intermediary (once again according to wikipedia).
  - facetube 10y ago
    Yeah, you're absolutely right; the DEA even sets import quotas. There are drugs where this is true, but I'm apparently remembering the wrong one.
91bananas 10y ago
Care to clarify what's erroneous?
- irishsultan 10y ago
  It seems there are two processes in use, one uses opium as an intermediary, the other doesn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine#Production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine#Production The latex used in India would seem to be opium (which is a dried latex obtained from the opium poppy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- maxerickson 10y ago
  The active compounds are not concentrated in the seeds. The seeds are even in the way of extraction of the opioids from the rest of the plant. Also, Opium is not really a compound, it's a mixture (which is maybe getting pedantic, but it's ~8th grade science).
  - TenOhms 10y ago
    Correct, the seeds themselves are inert, the latex surrounding the seeds is what contains the opium.
- senorjazz 10y ago
  Although may be present in the seeds in minute quantities, they extract it from the seed pod by scarring the pod and then letting it "bleed" (probably not the correct term) and harvesting it later.
- Nursie 10y ago
  Opium is a mixture of compounds, not a compound itself.
JonnieCache 10y ago
I've always wondered about the relationship between america's opiate habit and the afghan poppy harvest. The US army was burning millions (billions?) of dollars worth of poppies every year, to deny profit to the taliban. Could that not have been used to make pain pills? How do the incentives flow here?
- maxerickson 10y ago
  There's no shortage of pain pills. GoodRX is a pharmacy benefit manager that doesn't collect any payments from users, it runs on marketing fees, so it gives some information about the real cost of drugs. Several weeks of Oxycodone costs $20 at the pharmacy: https://www.goodrx.com/roxicodone https://www.goodrx.com/roxicodone
- freeflight 10y ago
  > The US army was burning millions (billions?) of dollars worth of poppies every year, to deny profit to the taliban. I'm not sure that's the whole story, if you look at the statistics then it rather looks like poppy production has increased since the US/NATO occupation [0], at least compared to the, very low, numbers in 2000. Turkey is one example of a country that successfully managed to legalize their poppy production, but it's questionable if that approach would work just as well in Afghanistan [1]. [0]https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_opium_survey_2015_socioeconomic.pdf https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/... (Page 14, Figure 2) [1]http://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/turkey%E2%80%99s-opium-trade-successfully-transitioning-illicit-production-legally-regulated-market http://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/turkey%E2%80%99s-opium-trade-suc...
  - VintageCool 10y ago
    The United States gave the Taliban $43 million in 2011 in appreciation of their efforts to eradicate the Afghan poppy crop. https://www.thenation.com/article/bushs-faustian-deal-taliban/ https://www.thenation.com/article/bushs-faustian-deal-taliba... http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-poppy-a-success-us-aides-say.html http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-pop...

by TenOhms 10y ago

Before the article even begins it gives erroneous information: "Morphine is extracted from opium, a compound found in the seeds of the opium poppy." Edit: The research looks interesting though.

ipunchghosts 10y ago

1st sentence of wikipedia, "Morphine is a pain medication of the opiate type which is found naturally in a number of plants and animals."

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
erroneousfunk 10y ago
Right, but the OP was interpreting the sentence to imply that that's where it comes from. Morphine medication is all synthesized.
- irishsultan 10y ago
  Nope, otherwise farmers in Afghanistan wouldn't have switched to growing opium poppies en masse. Apparently the main issue the OP had was with the seeds part.

facetube 10y ago

It looks like an issue with wording to me, i.e. they may have meant "can in theory be, but usually isn't compared to the high cost compared to lab synthesis", but oversimplified it.

irishsultan 10y ago
Other way around, synthesis is more expensive (according to wikipedia). But the extraction from poppies doesn't need to involve opium as an intermediary (once again according to wikipedia).
- facetube 10y ago
  Yeah, you're absolutely right; the DEA even sets import quotas. There are drugs where this is true, but I'm apparently remembering the wrong one.

91bananas 10y ago

Care to clarify what's erroneous?

irishsultan 10y ago
It seems there are two processes in use, one uses opium as an intermediary, the other doesn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine#Production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine#Production The latex used in India would seem to be opium (which is a dried latex obtained from the opium poppy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
maxerickson 10y ago
The active compounds are not concentrated in the seeds. The seeds are even in the way of extraction of the opioids from the rest of the plant. Also, Opium is not really a compound, it's a mixture (which is maybe getting pedantic, but it's ~8th grade science).
- TenOhms 10y ago
  Correct, the seeds themselves are inert, the latex surrounding the seeds is what contains the opium.
senorjazz 10y ago
Although may be present in the seeds in minute quantities, they extract it from the seed pod by scarring the pod and then letting it "bleed" (probably not the correct term) and harvesting it later.
Nursie 10y ago
Opium is a mixture of compounds, not a compound itself.

JonnieCache 10y ago

I've always wondered about the relationship between america's opiate habit and the afghan poppy harvest. The US army was burning millions (billions?) of dollars worth of poppies every year, to deny profit to the taliban. Could that not have been used to make pain pills? How do the incentives flow here?

maxerickson 10y ago
There's no shortage of pain pills. GoodRX is a pharmacy benefit manager that doesn't collect any payments from users, it runs on marketing fees, so it gives some information about the real cost of drugs. Several weeks of Oxycodone costs $20 at the pharmacy: https://www.goodrx.com/roxicodone https://www.goodrx.com/roxicodone
freeflight 10y ago
> The US army was burning millions (billions?) of dollars worth of poppies every year, to deny profit to the taliban. I'm not sure that's the whole story, if you look at the statistics then it rather looks like poppy production has increased since the US/NATO occupation [0], at least compared to the, very low, numbers in 2000. Turkey is one example of a country that successfully managed to legalize their poppy production, but it's questionable if that approach would work just as well in Afghanistan [1]. [0]https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_opium_survey_2015_socioeconomic.pdf https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/... (Page 14, Figure 2) [1]http://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/turkey%E2%80%99s-opium-trade-successfully-transitioning-illicit-production-legally-regulated-market http://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/turkey%E2%80%99s-opium-trade-suc...
- VintageCool 10y ago
  The United States gave the Taliban $43 million in 2011 in appreciation of their efforts to eradicate the Afghan poppy crop. https://www.thenation.com/article/bushs-faustian-deal-taliban/ https://www.thenation.com/article/bushs-faustian-deal-taliba... http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-poppy-a-success-us-aides-say.html http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-pop...