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Customer Review
Fascinating Read
This book has a fascinating, even forbidden tone to it. It is amazing that a plant which grows from a tiny seed and produces such a valuable product is veiled in mystery and deliberate mis-information. This book is a fairly easy read, unless you are concerned with the later chapters which include technical and chemical details. It has valuable information for both the general reader and the person looking for specific knowledge. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the topic, whether for simple knowledge or specific tips.
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September 22, 2010
(Texas, USA) | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 5
Product Description
"Contrary to general belief, there is no federal law against growing P. somniferum."—Martha Stewart Living
"Regarded as 'God's own medicine,' preparations of opium were as common in the Victorian medicine cabinet as aspirin is in ours. As late as 1915, pamphlets issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were still mentioning opium poppies as a good cash crop for northern farmers. Well into this century, Russian, Greek, and Arab immigrants in America have used poppy-head tea as a mild sedative and a remedy for headaches, muscle pain, cough, and diarrhea. During the Civil War, gardeners in the South were encouraged to plant opium for the war effort, in order to ensure a supply of painkillers for the Confederate Army. What Hogshire has done is to excavate this vernacular knowledge and then publish it to the world—in how-to form, with recipes."— Michael Pollan
First published fifteen years ago, Opium for the Masses instantly became a national phenomenon. Michael Pollan wrote a lengthy feature ("Opium, made easy") about Jim Hogshire in Harper’s Magazine, amazed that the common plant, P. somniferum, or opium poppies, which grows wild in many states and is available at crafts and hobby stores and nurseries, could also be made into a drinkable tea that acts in a way similar to codeine or Vicodin.
With Opium for the Masses as their guide, Americans can learn how to supplement their own medicine chest with natural and legal pain medicine, without costly and difficult trips to the doctor and pharmacy.
Worth the read just for the sake of intrigue
I bought this book because some friends and I were joking about opium and I decided I wanted to learn more about it. While I don't think I will ever produce opium for recreational or medicinal use, the book has renewed my interest in poppies as a colourful, beautiful flower that come in a huge variety of forms.The book is informative on the nature of opium and poppy products and many of the important opiate alkaloids found within. The book goes on to describe other products of poppies, morphine to heroin for instance, but this was of less interest to me. My main concern was actually the flower and its direct products, rather than products of its products and etc.I wish it was more detailed on the actual plant biology aspect, outside of opiates, but I understand that Hogshire is not a botanist and is not as interested in such things as the details of the roots or the poppy seed capsule's exact design. So I cannot blame him for not going in depth.I do...
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December 8, 2010
(Gresham, Oregon, USA) | Helpful Votes: 10 | Rating: 4
Knowledge is Power - and there is Knowledge Here
Its sort of a catch 22. The title caught my attention and I am into natural medicine options. Pain relief is something that is regulated and we average citizens only access to those things is through an expensive medical industry that that nobody can afford unless they have health insurance and often medications are also expensive and over priced.This book has a lot of history regarding creating natural pain methods that have been used prior to your rights and freedoms being legislated away that human beings have enjoyed since before recorded history.We have to keep in mind all the laws and regulations are very "new" on the historic time line. The fact is more and more average people are finding themselves without access to health care at a cost that is reasonable or affordable. Information like this could be valuable to anyone who practices natural medicine.Like anything, the information in this book could be abused and after reading this book...
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November 16, 2010
| Helpful Votes: 10 | Rating: 4
