Raw opium oozes from a lanced poppy seed pod grown by licensed farmers in Turkey and Iran.
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A brick of pressed raw opium ready to be transported for processing.
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Creating New Drugs by Modifying the Molecule
When scientists first began looking at drugs derived from opium ("opiates"), they were interested in identifying drugs that would be good painkillers, but would not lead to patients' becoming addicted to the drug -- a problem with codeine and morphine.
In 1929, Dr. Lyndon F. Small established the Drug Addiction Laboratory, the ancestor of today's LMC. Seeking to create painkillers which would not cause addiction, Small studied and modified the morphine molecule and related opium products. This work was based on the assumption that the drug's effects were directly related to its molecular structure. Small's assumption proved correct. Metopon, a potent opiate painkiller, was among his most notable contributions. With metopon, partial separation of the painkilling effects from the undesired addictive property was at last achieved. This finding was the underpinning of much research that continues today into a total separation of painkilling and addictive effects.
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Dr. Small prepared hundreds of potential opiate drugs for pharmacological evaluation, keeping them in cigar boxes. Small's samples have been used by many investigators to identify opiate products.
