opium

1. (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.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:[…]"; "Opium is largely used by the Chinese as a sexual provocation, both by men and women."

2. (by extension, countable) Anything that numbs or stupefies.Examples: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, […] It is the opium of the people."