Opium has been used medicinally and recreationally for centuries. Fifteenth century China doctors used opium for medicine, with some using it recreationally. It was the first effective antidepressant, sedative, and pain reliever. However, opium addictions only began in the eighteenth century, when the British began to monopolize the sale of opium. It is no coincidence that when the British, with their chemical industry, began selling opium that these chemically altered opiums began creating addictions. Completely natural, unadulterated plants are not addictive until they have been "refined" and concentrated. As a result of what the British did, opium eventually became illegal under Chinese law, but the sale from the British continued.
In 1839, the Emperor, Tao Kwang, ordered his minister Lin Tse-hsu to deal with the opium problem. Lin requested help from Queen Victoria, but was ignored. As a result, the Emperor confiscated 20,000 barrels of opium and detained some foreign traders, many of whom were British. The Chinese believed that because their ceramics and silk technologies were superior to their British counterparts that their naval ships would also be. They were wrong. The British retaliated to this interference with their drug ("medical") trade by attacking the port-city of Canton.
This was the beginning of what would become known as the 'First Opium War'. It was launched by the biggest, richest drug cartel that the world has ever known; the British Empire. When the Chinese were defeated, they had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. They were required to allow the trade of opium, to make large payments to the British, and even to open five new ports to the foreign drug ("medical") trade. They were also forced to give Hong Kong to Britain. Opium was, technically, still an illegal substance in China, but the Chinese were forced to accept British imports.
In 1856, the Second Opium War began and ended, with the Chinese being defeated once more. As a result, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Tientsin, and the sale of opium was legalized. The British claimed that the Chinese people had a "right" to this "harmless luxury", without regard to its own government. Opium imports increased to unprecedented levels. By the end of the nineteenth century, an estimated quarter of the male population of China was addicted to the enhanced opium.
In the United States, many of the early Americans cultivated their own opium. Thomas Jefferson cultivated opium at his garden in Monticello. This fact is generally covered-up by modern historians, who have the politically correct belief that all drugs are bad, even in their harmless natural state, and that prohibition is the only option of a healthy society.
Morphine was first isolated from opium in 1805 by German pharmacist, Wilhelm Sertürner. It was named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. When opium products are taken orally, they are known to cause stomach and digestive disturbances, so the invention of the hypodermic needle in the mid-nineteenth century allowed direct injection of morphine. The poor could not afford to inject drugs, so morphine was used daily by the elite classes, and the cost of opium fell. It was also used extensively on wounded soldiers in the U.S. Civil War. Incredibly, the pharmaceutical companies not only promoted morphine as being non-addictive, but to also cure opium addictions. Missionaries in the early twentieth century handed out "Jesus Opium" pills in order to assist with addictions. The active ingredient was morphine. Of course, this only created greater addictions, which conveniently helped the chemical industry more.
In the mid-nineteenth Century, Chinese immigrants had appeared in the United States in large numbers to help build railways and work with California mines. Opium use had become a part of their culture, and opium, along with the Chinese, were demonized as being destructive to the youth. Dr. John Witherspoon, who would later become president of the American Medical Association (AMA), told allopaths to search for a cure for opium addictions, and a morphine alternative. The alternative was to be non-addictive.
In 1874, an English pharmacist, C. R. Alder Wright had boiled morphine and acetic acid together, producing diacetylmorphine. Diacetylmorphine was synthesized and marketed commercially by the German pharmaceutical giant, Bayer. In 1898, Bayer launched the best-selling drug-brand of all time, Heroin.
Epilogue
When will we learn from history what to expect from these people and their "helpful" chemical "improvements" upon nature? You will see this identical pattern for all other illegal narcotics, like for instance, cocaine. They created all of the addictive drug monsters, and they got the results that they wanted. In fact, you can technically still get a doctor's prescription for cocaine, and even get it filled at certain pharmacies. Will the public ever see the pattern?
The reason why diseases are never cured with modern medicine is because curing is not as profitable as creating life-long drug addicts. This is why all the diseases are "chronic" now, and why the "medicines" seem only to perpetuate the diseases that they are supposedly meant to "treat" (but never ever cure). The system is broken by design to keep us dependent. Why do you think they "treat" cancer with extreme carcinogens like radiation? Radiation must be one of the most safe and effective health benefiting treatments, because they just cannot find that elusive cure, right?
Frankly, the biggest difference between your doctor and the local drug dealer is that the drug dealer is considerably more honest about how he earns his money.
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