ABSTRACT
Opium preparations were prescribed to reduce pain and produce calmness or sleep, as well as for complaints as cough or diarrhea. The beginning of the 19th century witnessed the isolation of morphine, the active compound of opium. The rate of development of physical dependence is believed to be slightly slower than the onset of tolerance to narcotic analgesics. The administrative actions concerned with regulation and control of what may be seen as harmful, aside from its ethical and moral considerations, must be integrated in the social fabric in a manner that will allow some degree of management over the drug-taking behavior of the individual. The experimental paradigm requires the elimination of the stimulus control exerted both by the primary pharmacological re inforcer and by conditioned reinforcer in treatment regimens which seek to eliminate opiate dependence by the use of drugs blocking reinforcement.
