Bedford Public Library

Opium, how an ancient flower shaped and poisoned our world, John H. Halpern and David Blistein

eng

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other

Opium

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1109968815

John H. Halpern and David Blistein

how an ancient flower shaped and poisoned our world

In 2017 over 60,000 Americans died as the result of opioid overdoses, more than died annually in this country during the peak of the AIDs epidemic, more than die every year from breast cancer, and more Americans than died in the entire Vietnam War. But even though the overdose crisis ravaging our nation seems impossible to ignore, few understand how it came to be. It tells the extraordinary and at times harrowing story of how we arrived at today's crisis. A story that begins at the dawn of human civilization with enterprising poppy farmers in Mesopotamia. Explores how Greek physicians and forgotten chemists discovered opium's effects and refined its power, how colonial powers spirited opium around the world in the interest of building out empires, and finally how international drug companies used the substance as a model for a wave of pills that laid the groundwork for today's raging overdose epidemic

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