My Opium Research

I chose the Opium Poppy as the plant I would be researching because I presumed that there would be a lot of issues with it, and that most of the issues would be current and interesting. So far, this has been the case. It has been easy to find interesting information. From what I already knew about the plant, I was able to start searching broadly, and when I saw something interesting or relevant in the articles I found in a broad search, I changed my search terms.
I think the most interesting piece of information I have found so far is that opium actually used to be eaten by the wealthy in China, and that way it was not very addictive. I read that they did not start smoking it until they were introduced to tobacco for smoking, which lead to the trend of smoking the opium as well. I think this is valuable information because it shows a major point in the developement of Opium's use as a highly addictive drug, which is the major problem with it today. Another thing that I found out was that the major problem with Opium is that the majority of it is from Afghanistan, and that is mainly what my research is based on now, but I'm not sure what value I would put on that information because it is so widely available and known, but I was just ignorant of it before.
The only frustration I have found in researching the opium poppy is the unreliability of websites that are found via google or yahoo etc. I started to notice that a lot of the sites I found had contradictions, and many of them did not look credible. A lot of the search results were things such as ways to try to get high from making tea out of the poppy seeds you buy in the store, and I don't think any credible source would discuss possible cheap ways to get high. For the most part, I have been using academic sources and books.