game of thrones - Why does nobody want milk of the poppy?

"Milk of the Poppy" is simply a more ornate way of saying any opiate-based pain reliever in the G.R.R. Martin novels and televised adaptation of Game of Thrones.

As seen in this image below, the poppy flower will produce a capsule that is scored, and drained of its "milk", the opiate gum, that will be rendered down to produce heroin, hence the name "milk of the poppy".

Production of Raw Opium

• Just before reaching maturity, the poppy plant produces a flower. After about a week, the flower petals fall off, leaving a capsule.




• Raw opium gum is harvested from this capsule. The surface of the capsule is cut, or "scored," with a knife containing three or four small blades, and the opium gum oozes out through these cuts.




• The next day, the farmer scrapes the gum off the capsules with a flat tool called a scraper. Each capsule is usually scored in this manner three to five times, or until scoring produces no more gum.




• Poppyfields contain thousands of poppy capsules, so harvesting is very labor intensive. Once the gum is collected, the farmer sets it out to dry for several days, then wraps it in banana leaf or plastic.




• The gum is stored until a trader comes to the village--opium gum has a very long shelf life and can gain value over time. After the harvesting process is complete, the capsules are cut from the stem, allowed to dry, then broken open so that the seeds inside the capsule can be used for next year's crop.

And like any opiate-based pain-reliever, "milk of the poppy" has several side-effects based on its use including dependence, memory-loss, and potentially lethal overdose. It makes sense only people down on their luck, with little left to lose, would accept it and its consequences long-term. People who valued mental clarity, if they were familiar with the side effects, would likely not risk any potential benefit seeing how many people fell to its many side-effects.

• Opiate-based pain relievers came in a number of varieties on Earth including heroin, morphine, tinctures of opium and Laudanum. Considering such pain relievers were over various periods used to treat a variety of illnesses.

As one researcher has noted: "To understand the popularity of a medicine that eased -- even if only temporarily -- coughing, diarrhoea and pain, one only has to consider the living conditions at the time". In the 1850s, "cholera and dysentery regularly ripped through communities, its victims often dying from debilitating diarrhoea", and dropsy, consumption, ague and rheumatism were all too common. -- “In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine, and Patent Medicines”, by Barbara Hodgson. Buffalo, New York, USA. Firefly Books, 2001, pages 44-49.

• Opiate-based pain relievers have been experimented with heavily on Earth, since the 16th century but the growth of poppies and their derivatives have been used since before the birth of Christ. It is conceivable the lands of Westeros have had a similar long-term relationship with such opiate-derived drugs and have experience with their potential deleterious side effects as well as a part of the culture.




• To be fair the differences between the books and the movies indicate there are users of the Milk of the Poppy depending on what events are taking place. The televised version seems more averse to it, possibly an issue with the censors.