Krótka historia opium

by Thomas Dormandy, Grzegorz Siwek (Translator)

Antidotum czy cichy zabójca? Mroczna historia błogosławionego, pożądanego i przeklętego narkotyku.

Opium i jego pochodne – morfina i heroina – zniszczyły, upodliły, zdeprawowały lub zabiły liczne jednostki, rodziny, społeczności, a nawet całe narody. Jednak w tym samym czasie wielu lekarzy twierdziło, że bez cudownych skutków, jakie opium wywierało na ich pacjentów, nie byliby w stanie wykonywać swojego zawodu, a żadna szanująca się placówka medyczna nie mogłaby funkcjonować bez środków odurzających.

Przez wiele lat pod pojęciem opium rozumiano mleczny sok wypływający z nacięć na owocach maku lekarskiego (makówkach). Toczono o nie wojny, pod nazwą laudanum opium wywierało też znaczący wpływ na europejską literaturę i sztukę. Jednak od połowy XIX wieku opium zaczęło oznaczać nie sok, lecz jego substancję czynną, alkaloid o nazwie morfina. Sto lat później z morfiny otrzymano pochodną – heroinę. Te zmiany wpłynęły na naturę uzależnienia, przekształciły postrzeganie opium przez opinię publiczną oraz stworzyły najsilniejsze organizacje przestępcze, jakie widział świat.

Zażywanie i nadużywanie tego specyfiku w istotny sposób wpłynęło na wydarzenia spoza świata medycznego, a wydarzenia pozamedyczne w równie istotny sposób kształtowały zażywanie i nadużywanie opium. Do dziś mak jest znaczącym graczem na arenie międzynarodowej, utrzymuje przy władzy albo obala rządy, wznieca konflikty, inicjuje wojny. Ta niezwykła książka prezentuje historię najbardziej fascynującego z narkotyków, od pierwszych dowodów uprawy maku przez mężczyznę z epoki kamiennej po dzisiejszy handel opium w Afganistanie.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medicine, Addiction, Science, Microhistory, Drugs

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Thomas Dormandy was a retired consultant chemical pathologist and professor who worked at the University of Brunel and Whittington Hospital at the University of London. Dormandy wrote several books in addition to over three hundred scientific articles. In 1999 Dormandy published The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis. In it he combined scientific and sociological history to create his account of tuberculosis and various people's struggle with the disease primarily in the United States and Europe.

Reviews of The White Death were mixed among the critics. Muiris Houston, writing in the British Medical Journal, commented that Dormandy "has a knack of explaining technical matters" as he "weaves literature, social history, pharmacology, and epidemiology into an entertaining tale." In a Lancet review, Anne Hardy agreed that the book was "clearly written," but felt it "offers little to stimulate the interest of those already familiar with … the history of tuberculosis in general." Writing in the English Historical Review, Helen Jones thought the outline of the book was unclear. "There is no explanation at the outset of how the chapters are organized, and no sense of what will follow from chapter to chapter," Jones commented. A critic concluded in a Publishers Weekly review, however, that the "prodigious research and an anecdotal style blend to make this a fascinating foray into the history of medicine."

Reviews

[Newtown Review of Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkably, the huge amount of fascinating and sometimes technical information in the book is presented in prose that is witty, scarifying and compelling. Dormandy is a retired professor of chemical pathology, whatever that is, and he seems to have had a team of researchers, but only a superb command of language could have made the book the triumph it is.

Read full review here: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2012/...

[David Keith]

Opium has been a Godsend and also a anathema. Throughout history some for opium, some completely against opium. I feel after reading this well written account, that there must be some kind of medium ground sustained by professionals in the administration of opium. Heroin, Codeine, Morphine, Laudanum, etc, derivatives of the poppy should of course given to those as a last resort whom are in pain enough that opium should by all means given in whatever form deemed suitable. This Drug has been abused throughout it's discovered life span, and continues to be so. This abuse should be remedied, and that service freely available to all addicts. As I stated earlier, there remains some cases where these opiates should be administered by professionals in whatever form necessary. Opium relieves pain, no question, but remains highly addictive. Extreme caution should be taken when using this drug. Opium is a wonder, and good for some, properly taken it is a miracle drug, abused, it's a curse that will never go away.

[Richard Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and a real history of the drug to its positive effect as pain killer to the more sinister addictive side

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opium: Reality's Dark Dream by Thomas Dormandy (Yale University Press 2012)(362.293) has written a a volume tracing the history of the opium poppy and its relationship with mankind since the paleolithic era. This was written by an MD and a historian, and it reads as such. My rating: 6/10, finished 11/9/12.

[Stuart Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

A huge investigation into opium and its widely used or abused derivatives, covering its production, impact on society, influence on the arts, associated wars, criminal gangs and innumerable other topics. If there is anything worth knowing about opium, morphine or heroin, aside from detailed pharmacology, it is in this book.