“Vintage Meds”: A Netnographic Study of User Decision-Making, Home Preparation, and Consumptive Patterns of Laudanum

Abstract

Background: Reviews have commented on rising clandestine manufacture of opiate drug solutions for injecting, and to a lesser extent for oral use. Very little is known about user attempts to culture poppy seeds, widely available on the internet for manufacture of long acting medium-high potency oral solutions, both as poppy seed tea or as opium tincture (laudanum). Objectives: A netnographic research methodology aimed to provide online consumer insight into user sourcing and decision influences, experiences of home manufacture of laudanum, utilization of opium tincture recipes, and consumptive patterns. Methods: A systematic internet search was conducted using the terms: “Laudanum,” “Opium tincture,” and “Tincture of Opium” in combination with “forum.” Following screening of 810 forum threads with exclusion criteria and removal of duplicates, 75 fora threads on 6 online drug fora were analyzed using the empirical phenomenological psychological method. Four themes were generated. Results: Findings illustrated the underpinning of user reminiscing about Victorian use of standardized laudanum, long duration shelf life, and medicinal use for opiate withdrawals with intentions to prepare. Preparation of famous recipes and use of authentic storage bottles boosted nostalgia. Participants appeared well versed in kitchen chemistry processes. Discussions centered on type and amount of alcohol used, use of additives to promote palatability and intoxication effect, homogenization of poppy seeds, and double extraction using opium tincture. Lack of detail available on intoxication experiences, with tentative dosage advised. Conclusions: Development of targeted and credible “counterpublic” harm reduction initiatives situated within online consumerism of communal drug knowledge is warranted.

Keywords :

• opium tincture
• laudanum
• netnography
• internet
• oral opiate solution

THE AUTHORS

Dr. Marie Claire Van Hout, PhD, M.Sc International Addiction Studies, M.Sc Health is the Coordinator, Substance Misuse Research, School of Health Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology, which is registered on the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Her research interests include new psychoactive substances, performance and image enhancement drugs, pharmaceutical misuse and internet drug monitoring.

Evelyn Hearne, BA(Hons) Addiction Counselling; is a post graduate student of the MSc in Public Health at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moore's University, United Kingdom. Her research interests include new psychoactive substances, performance and image enhancement drugs, internet drug monitoring and injecting drug use behaviors.

GLOSSARY

Counter public health: areas of public health where  investment in particular moral ideologies compromises  the ability to respond effectively to public health needs.

Empirical Phenomenological Psychological Method: a  scientific approach for exploring and describing  subjective experiences and its perceived meaning.  The analysis process emphasizes an open and bias-free  attitude toward the data.

Laudanum: a tincture of opium containing approximately  10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1%  morphine).

Netnography: the study of cultures and online  communities emerging through computer-mediated  communications.