@cara thanks for that insight - I only got addicted to the edible poppy, which has a bit of opium, too - I was a child and to this day I remember the smell when entering my grandparents' stone house, where behind the large wooden door stood a 0.6m high wooden mortar, always in use, never cleaned and the pestle, also wooden, still in it - and I'd always take a deep breath in.
There are stories around of farmers in the past taking their babies to the fields with them and when they were crying and could not be pacified they would be given a poppy seed flower stalk to chew - even the capsule which contains the seeds is large and pretty and rattles was often given - - and I do know the case of one family who lost a child that way - hearsay - of course, as i myself was a child when that story was told. But it could affect brains, thinking capacity of kids who were given that pacifier.
It has made me wonder from time to time, if the violence coming from the foremost opium poppy growing areas of the world has not affected whole populations so that they are seemingly incapable from rising from the violence we have seen continuing over generations even? Same would go for the occupying forces, who would not be immune to the seduction of opium? I know I'll get shot down for this (in theory only
- luckily).
Cheers
Taurisk
