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How were psychoactive drugs ever discovered?

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How were psychoactive drugs ever discovered?

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No one knows for sure, but it is presumed that not having TV the indigenous peoples had a lot of time on their hands, and were inquisitive, experimental people, who found useful plants after a lot of trial and error. Once a useful plant has been found they searched for similar looking plant. There is some evidence for this. For example in Colombia the Barasana Indians recognize 14 different forms of a stimulant plant, Paullinia yoco. So their approach is not strictly trial and error, but has a logical basis. Opium–ancient drug of the East What is opium? When the young green fruit of the opium poppy is wounded with a knife a sticky white liquid is exuded, called latex, which dries to a brown gum called crude opium. Crude Opium, or opium gum is a mixture of about 20 alkaloids and many impurities that comes from Papaver somniferum, which is in the poppy family. The opium poppy is the only member of the family that produces alkaloids of medical interest. Raw opium is called opium gum, and

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