Morphine, heroin, codeine, and more were derived from opium

Opioids are a class of drugs including fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, and more

Since the dawn of pain, living things have sought ways to mitigate this evolutionary warning signal. One of nature's most effective painkillers is opium, a highly addictive, milky latex extracted from poppy plants. This forms the basis of one of the most prescribed classes of modern drugs.

Synthetic opioids: a historical and clinical review

In the 19th century, researchers began synthesizing and isolating poppy plant alkaloids, leading to the invention of morphine, codeine, heroin, oxycodone, and others. These highly addictive variants eventually gave rise to illicit use and a widespread underground market, laying the foundation for the current opioid crisis.

Opium is a milky liquid substance extracted from unripe poppy plant seeds

It's been used for ages to reduce pain and induce euphoria, both of which are side effects of the plant's alkaloids—nitrogen-based compounds with pronounced physical effects. Isolating and synthesizing derivatives of these naturally occurring chemicals enabled the invention of morphine, heroin, and other opioids.

Opium's history traces from religious use to mass-market commercial products

Religious or medical use of opium was present across Europe and Asia as early as 5000 BCE. By the 16th century, humanity had come to see opium as more than medicine: It was a marketable product. This perspective also defines today's relationship with opioids, highly addictive painkillers at the heart of an ongoing drug crisis.

Evidence of opium use dates to as early as 5000 BCE

Archaeological evidence shows the use of the poppy plant for its pain-killing properties likely originated in the Mediterranean before making its way to the East and West via trade. It has since inspired two eponymous wars, and highly addictive derivatives of the naturally occurring substance have led to an ongoing overdose crisis.

Opioid prescription rates by states and counties

The origins of the US' ongoing opioid crisis are typically traced to the more than 1 billion prescription pain pills that flooded medicine cabinets between 2005 and 2019. This prescription opioid epidemic resulted in more than 210,000 fatal overdoses and set the stage for the ongoing crisis fueled by heroin and fentanyl.

Fast, cheap, and deadly: How fentanyl replaced heroin and hooked America

This interactive article details how fentanyl has largely replaced heroin in the drug trade, with fatal results. Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 as an anesthetic for pain relief, but the drug took hold in the US black market in 2014 and has since exploded in the intervening decade.

Aspirin was the first synthesized anti-inflammatory drug

Once used by the ancient Sumarians—extracted from willow bark—but now synthesized in the lab, the active ingredient of this popular medication has been used to treat headaches and pain for thousands of years.

The pharmaceutical industry evolved, in part, from the discovery of synthetic dyes

In 1856, a chemist accidentally discovered mauveine, the world’s first synthetic dye, while trying to make quinine to treat malaria. The synthetic dyes that followed helped reveal germs under microscopes, paving the way for modern imaging techniques and breakthrough treatments, such as antibiotics.

How the Myanmar coup fueled a rise in illegal drugs

According to the UN, Myanmar remains the world’s second-largest producer of heroin. Inside Myanmar, almost all the drugs come from one place: Shan state in the Golden Triangle region, south of China, where Myanmar meets Thailand and Laos. The...

The US war on drugs, explained

The United States has been fighting a global war on drugs for decades. By making drugs more expensive and less available, the US has sought to reduce drug use and inhibit the international drug trade. However, increasing prison populations,...

​Why heroin became associated with the grunge world

The drug was popular with several Seattle acts in the early 1990s, with artists like Hole's Courtney Love even publicizing her use in a magazine profile. A 1992 New York Times story on Seattle said the city's principal drugs were "espresso, beer, and heroin."

LSD was derived from natural compounds produced by the ergot fungus

Ergot is a fungus that slowly infects and replaces individual grains on grasses, including rye and wheat. Ingesting ergot can cause ergotism, a form of poisoning with symptoms—including headaches, hallucinations, gangrene, and convulsions—varying by season and geography. This grain was used for medicinal purposes as early as the 1500s.

The federal government allowed toxic chemicals into alcohol during Prohibition

Industrial alcohol was still legal during Prohibition, and was often used by bootleggers. In an attempt to disrupt the black market, the government required toxic additives to be included in industrial alcohol, leading to more than one death.

Vanilla was originally thought to be an additive for chocolate

The classic flavor didn't stand on its own until the 17th century, when Queen Elizabeth I's apothecary began intentionally making vanilla sweets.

A timeline of US immigration laws

The United States began regulating immigration soon after it won independence from Great Britain, and the laws since enacted have reflected the politics and migrant flows of the times. Here's a timeline of key immigration laws from 1790 to 2014, according to the Pew Research Center.

Premarin was the bestselling drug in the US in 1992

The drug, derived from the urine or pregnant mares, raised ethical and animal welfare concerns, but also became wildly popular until the Women's Health Initiative study findings in 2002 (which have since been largely disproved). In the 1990s, Premarin was used to treat menopause symptoms and also to protect against osteoporosis and heart disease among older women.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

The word ‘coupon’ comes from a French word meaning ‘to cut’

The history of coupons starts in the US with the Coca-Cola coupon that was mailed to consumers, offering them a chance to come try the soda for free in a nearby pharmacy. A coupon created by cereal company Post is one of the earliest widely cited follow-ups—it offered a penny off a box of Grape Nuts in 1909.

Revolutionary ideas were brewed in 18th-century coffeehouses

After the Boston Tea Party (1773), colonists boycotted tea and turned to coffee, with coffeehouses becoming hubs for revolutionary discussions. The stimulating import from the Caribbean helped shape the nascent American taste.

Europeans' arrival to America brought disease to Indigenous populations

Indigenous people lived in the Americas for centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans in the 15th century. Their arrival was disastrous for Native tribes; in addition to being enslaved and losing their land, they had no natural immunity to the diseases brought by colonists. Eventually, up to 95% of the Native American population was killed by illnesses including typhus, chickenpox, and cholera, an event now known as the Great Dying.

Ibogaine, a psychedelic substance, can be used to treat mental illness

Although the substance is banned in the US, it's legal in Mexico. Americans who have traveled there for treatment, including the NFL's Braden Smith, say the drug helps deal with conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Explore some of the trademarked scents in the US

Scents, when they are truly unique and identifiable to a particular brand, can be trademarked. Any trademark on a scent must pass two tests: distinctiveness and non-functionality. In order to be trademarked, the scent of a product can't be the primary purpose of that product (like a candle or a perfume), and the scent has to be distinct. Some of the trademarked scents include Play-Doh and the pain-relief patch Salonpas.

China is producing many peptides or peptide components sold in the US

In Silicon Valley, in particular, peptides have taken off, and are often coming from China—even though many of the products are unproven for their purported uses.

The Stepan Company is the only US company with legal permission to import coca leaves

The Stepan Company works closely with Coca-Cola so that the soda giant can continue to use coca leaves for its beverages. Today, the cocaine from the coca leaves is removed before they are used to create Coca-Cola.

The story of the first commercial US oil well and why crude oil is measured in barrels

The 1859 oil discovery in Titusville, Pennsylvania, sparked a boom in oil exploration and production to meet the demand for kerosene lamp fuel. Because the 42-gallon barrel was a readily available container already in use for shipping fish, butter, wine, and other goods, it was adopted by the Petroleum Producers Association in 1872 and by both the US Geological Survey and the US Bureau of Mines in 1882.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect