opium

Yes, The Aussies Have it All Figured Out

I have been thinking about psychoactive plant substances like marijuana (from the cannabis plant), opium and its derivatives morphine, heroine and codeine (from the opium poppy). We know what these substances do to the human system, but how did they evolve? What advantage, if any, do these...

The current issue of The Scientist (see ref below) has an interesting article on poppy cultivation and genetic modification of the poppy plant. With 40% of the world’s legal medicinal opium production centered in Tasmania, Australia, plant scientists there were working on transgenic poppies...