Such opiates as morphine end heroin are all originated from seeds of opioid poppy plants. Opium was one of the significant goods in the trade market for many centuries worldwide. It served for medicinal purposes as a painkiller and sedative. The plant appears in ancient mythologies and medicinal books (Brownstein, 1993). The same applies to the countries in the Caribbean region. The Dominican Republic has a long history of poppy plants’ use in medicine and culture.
The culture of using poppy plants dates back to the third century BC. Ancient Greece and Central Asia spread the customary application to the Northern and Southern American continents. Like many countries in the Mexican Region, Dominican Republic has a background in using the plant in treatment. For instance, the poppy plant’s seeds and their juice were used as analgesics during the performance of surgeries (Brownstein, 1993). Over time Dominican people started to abuse the ingestion of the drug. It led to some disastrous effects that deteriorated populations’ health. For instance, there were cases of lead poison caused by the contamination of oral opioids in 2006 (Meybodi et al., 2012). The studies about the side effects of narcotics led to drug banning policies (Country reports, 2010). These laws compromised the democratic view of the country’s civilians and brought militarized enforcement to the Dominican Republic.
To conclude, the poppy plant influenced the culture of many world regions. In the Dominican Republic, it was especially popular as a treatment against nervousness and arousal in customary medicine. Unfortunately, people quickly became addicted to the substance, and it caused some damaging events. Many governments had to reinforce the rules against the use; however, it resulted in certain complications for the Dominican’s freedom.
References
Brownstein, M. J. (1993). A brief history of opiates, opioid peptides, and opioid receptors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 90(12), 5391-5393. Web.
Country reports. (2010). The Free Library. (2010). Web.
Meybodi, F. A., Eslickl, G., Sasani, S., Abdolhoseyni, M., Sazegar, S., & Ebrahimi, F. (2012). Oral opium: An unusual cause of lead poisoning [PDF document]. Web.
