The History of Opium — From Sacred Medicine To The Drug That Broke Empires

History of Opium — From Sacred Medicine To The Drug That Broke Empires 🔔 Subscribe for more fascinating history:    / @before-the-fork   Discover the shocking 5,000-year history of opium — from the ancient Sumerians who called it the "joy plant" to the modern opioid crisis claiming tens of thousands of lives every year. This history documentary traces the opium poppy through ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, into the rise of laudanum, and the British Empire's opium trade that ignited the Opium Wars with China, when Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 chests of opium and triggered a war that reshaped world history. Learn how morphine was discovered, how Bayer marketed heroin as a cough medicine, why Tasmania grows half the world's legal opium supply, how the Golden Triangle fuels the illegal drug trade, and how a poppy seed bagel caused a false positive drug test that took a newborn from her mother. From ancient medicine to addiction, empire, and the opioid epidemic — this is the untold story of the world's most dangerous plant. ARTICLES AND SOURCES USED FOR RESEARCH https://museum.dea.gov/exhibits/onlin... https://www.britannica.com/topic/Opiu... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruc... https://www.newsweek.com/civilization... https://www.aclupa.org/press-releases...