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The opium of the people or opium of the masses (German: Opium des Volkes) is a dictum used in reference to religion, derived from a frequently paraphrased partial statement of German revolutionary and critic of political economy Karl Marx: "Religion is the opium of the people." In context, the statement is part of Marx's analysis that religion ...
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: Lachryma papaveris) is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. [4] Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade.
19th-century German philosopher Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, viewed religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" or the "opium of the people". According to Marx, religion in this world of exploitation is an expression of distress and at the same time it is also a protest against the real distress.
The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade. [1] The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and consequently resulted in China being forced to legalise opium.
It was these exports of Indian opium that sparked the Opium Wars between the UK and China. [2] The small proportion of opium that remained in India was sold under a licensed regime, with 10,118 shops selling opium to the general public across the subcontinent, with only one for every 21,000 people. [3]
Gladstone emerged as a fierce critic of the Opium Wars, which Britain waged to re-legalise the British opium trade into China, which had been made illegal by the Chinese government. [21] He publicly lambasted the wars as " Palmerston's Opium War" and said that he felt "in dread of the judgements of God upon England for our national iniquity ...
The Opium of the Intellectuals (French: L'Opium des intellectuels) is a book written by Raymond Aron and published in 1955. It was first published in an English translation in 1957. It was first published in an English translation in 1957.
The psychoactive compounds found in the opium plant include morphine, codeine, and thebaine (figure below is wrong, thebaine is "3,6-Dimethoxy-"). Opiates have long been used for a variety of medical conditions, with evidence of opiate trade and use for pain relief as early as the eighth century AD. [ 4 ]