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countable and uncountable, plural opiums or opia
(uncountable) A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine. quotations examples
From hence we firſt ſailed to Achin, in the iſland of Sumatra, and then to Siam, where we bartered our wares for ſome arrack and opium, the laſt of which bore a great price among the Chineſe: […]
1777, page 277
(by extension, countable) Anything that numbs or stupefies. quotations examples
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, […] It is the opium of the people.
1843, Karl Marx, Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie [A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right]