a b c d Philip Robson (1999). Forbidden Drugs. Oxford University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-19-262955-5. Opium – Poppy Cultivation, Morphine and Heroin Manufacture". Erowid.org . Retrieved January 25, 2017.

Heroin (diacetylmorphine) is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2 to 3 times more potent. A highly addictive drug, heroin exhibits euphoric ("rush"), anxiolytic and analgesic central nervous system properties. The earliest clear description of the use of opium as a recreational drug in China came from Xu Boling, who wrote in 1483 that opium was "mainly used to aid masculinity, strengthen sperm and regain vigor", and that it "enhances the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies". He also described an expedition sent by the Ming dynasty Chenghua Emperor in 1483 to procure opium for a price "equal to that of gold" in Hainan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Shaanxi, where it is close to the western lands of Xiyu. A century later, Li Shizhen listed standard medical uses of opium in his renowned Compendium of Materia Medica (1578), but also wrote that "lay people use it for the art of sex," in particular the ability to "arrest seminal emission". This association of opium with sex continued in China until the end of the 19th century. The opium trade under the Chinese Communist Party was important to its finances in the 1940s. [82] Peter Vladimirov's diary provided a first hand account. [83] Chen Yung-fa provided a detailed historical account of how the opium trade was essential to the economy of Yan'an during this period. [84] Mitsubishi and Mitsui were involved in the opium trade during the Japanese occupation of China. [85] Pablo Bartholomew (1996). "Opium for the masses: photo essay on cultivation of opium in India". Archived from the original on July 1, 2007 . Retrieved June 15, 2007.

Jennifer Hull (June 24, 2001). "Eastern Europe Shooting Up Under A Red Star". Time . Retrieved April 17, 2020. Chandra, Siddharth (2008). "Economic Histories of the Opium Trade". Archived from the original on September 28, 2013.

Garzoni, Costantino. 1840 [1573]. "Relazione dell'impero Ottomano del senatore Costantino Garzoni stato all'ambascieria di Costantinopoli nel 1573". In Le relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, serie III, volume I, ed. Eugenio Albèri. Firenze: Clio, p. 398 Ahmad, Diana L. The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth-century American West (University of Nevada Press, 2007). Drugs and Racism in the Old West.

Heroin methods of use

Benjamin Pui-Nin Mo & E. Leong Way (October 1, 1966). "An Assessment Of Inhalation As A Mode Of Administration Of Heroin By Addicts". Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 154 (1): 142–151. PMID 5924312 . Retrieved June 6, 2007. John Rennie (March 26, 2007). "When a woman ruled Chinatown". Tower Hamlets Newsletter. Archived from the original on February 10, 2010 . Retrieved May 12, 2007. Operational Medicine 2001 Field Medical Service School Student Handbook: Molle medical bag/surgical instrument set". December 7, 1999 . Retrieved June 27, 2007. Traditionally the unripened pod is slit open and the sap seeps out and dries on the outer surface of the pod. The resulting yellow-brown latex, which is scraped off of the pod, is bitter in taste and contains varying amounts of alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, thebaine and papaverine. Max Chamka; Translated by Geraldine Ring. "3 grams of opium for 1 dollar". Caucaz europenews . Retrieved May 6, 2007.

Petr Parfenovich Vladimirov (1975). The Vladimirov diaries: Yenan, China, 1942–1945. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-00928-7. Oral ingestion does not usually lead to a "rush", but use of heroin in suppository form may have intense euphoric effects. Latimer, Dean, and Jeff Goldberg with an Introduction by William Burroughs. Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium. New York: Franklin Watts, 1981

Will you be claiming the VAT back?

Heydari, M; Hashempur, M. H.; Zargaran, A (2013). "Medicinal aspects of opium as described in Avicenna's Canon of Medicine". Acta medico-historica Adriatica. 11 (1): 101–12. PMID 23883087. The use of diethyl ether and chloroform for general anesthesia began in 1846–1847, and rapidly displaced the use of opiates and tropane alkaloids from Solanaceae due to their relative safety. [103] Stephen Harding; Lee Ann Olivier & Olivera Jokic. "Victorians' Secret: Victorian Substance Abuse". Archived from the original on May 31, 2007 . Retrieved May 2, 2007.