A six-year study on 51 Vietnam veterans who were drug abusers of either mainly stimulants (11 people), mainly opiates (26 people), or mainly benzodiazepines (14 people) was carried out to assess psychiatric symptoms related to the specific drugs of abuse.
"The IRS2-Akt pathway in midbrain dopaminergic neurons regulates behavioral and cellular responses to opiates."
Oriental poppies are closely related to the Great scarlet poppy Papaver bracteatum, which can be grown for the commercial extraction of thebaine, a main source for the legal synthesis of opiates.