The use of opioids dates back to ancient times, when the first civilizations were able to get the poppy seed from the opium plant. The usefulness of this plant as an analgesic and treatment of diseases changed outcomes as it spread within many different cultures. In fact, opium was used in applications of it as a sedative and even before surgeries in the 200s.
Opioids slightly disappeared from Europe during the East and West struggle in the 1300-1400s, as it was considered a source of evil from the other side of the world.
This, however, started changing in the 1800s as more people (such as chemists and scientists) began to see the great medicinal impacts of treating pain and other ailments that would otherwise have no treatment. In the early 1800s, Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner was the first to extract morphine from the opium plant, and realized the effects of this drug. The use expanded as pain relievers and and opium alternative. It was even used by soldiers during the Civil War to treat pain, but this eventually turned problematic as …show more content…
In 1916, a few years after Bayer stopped the mass production of heroin due to hazardous use and dependence, German scientists at the University of Frankfurt first synthesized oxycodone with the hope that it would retain the analgesic effects of morphine and heroin with less dependence. Heroin sales stopped with the passage of The Heroin Act in 1924, making the importation, manufacture and possession of heroin illegal in the U.S. Spurred by growing rates of addiction, the Heroin Act made even its medicinal use illegal. In 1938, the passage of The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act gave authority to the FDA to oversee the safety of drug. Many medicines that were derived from opioids and already being sold such as codeine, morphine and oxycodone, were still allowed to be used by physicians despite the