The more you educate yourself on morphine and morphine addiction, the easier it will be to see it in yourself or a loved one. Learning about what its effects and adverse reactions are, as well as the signs of abuse, could help you to save someone’s life. Morphine is a well-known drug, but most Americans do not actually know much about morphine addiction and recovery. Over the next few pages, we will discuss what morphine is, as well as its history, and street names, to provide a basis of understanding about the origins of this very powerful drug.
History of Morphine
Morphine is an alkaloid that can be derived from opium, leading to a long history of use throughout the centuries. The medical use of opium dates back as far as the time of the Greeks in the third century BC. Used as a local and general anesthetic for surgery, opium was the strongest medicine available. However, morphine is derived from opium; it is not actually the same substance. Morphine’s history begins in the 19th century in Germany. Developed as a cure for alcohol and opium addiction, this medication was marketed as an analgesic.
Morphine was used on injured soldiers in combat during the Civil War. Many of these soldiers became addicted to morphine and morphine addiction began to be thought of as a disease that only soldiers were privy to. A few years after the Civil War ended, morphine was synthesized to create an even more powerful and addicting drug called heroin. Since the early 1900s, morphine has been considered a controlled substance, and you had to have a prescription to gain lawful possession of the medication. For more information on the history of morphine, click here.
What is Morphine?
Morphine is a strong opiate medication that is most commonly used to treat moderate to moderately severe chronic pain in patients. This analgesic has been prescribed for pain for over 200 years, since it was developed in the early 1800s. Considered to be the strongest pain reliever still to this day, morphine is used as a standard by which all opiates are compared for potency rating. Morphine has an extremely high potential for both physical and psychological addiction. For more information on what morphine is, click here.
Morphine Street Names
Considering that morphine has been used for over 200 years, you can believe it has a multitude of street names that it has been called. In fact, it is quite common for drug users to come up with their own code names for a particular substance. The main reason that they do this is to ward off suspicion of drug use or sale. Many times, a street name will to an extent, mirror the true name, sound like an abbreviation, or can be more like a description of the drug. It is important to know these street names because you may hear someone you know using them. This could alert you to the fact that they may have a problem. For more information on morphine street names, click here.