Gentle note to writers: opioid use *constricts* the pupil. Withdrawal causes dilation.

If you are a writer and want a nice layperson introduction to effects of opioid intoxication and withdrawal, trainspotting does a great job.

This is a very nitpicky point but “opiates” cover opioids derived from the poppy plant whereas opioids covers all of them including the man-made ones like methadone.

I think opiates is a nicer, more elegant word so for fiction writing I might use it anyway and before 1943 there were only opiates anyway. (I think...vague recollection Germany developed methadone when they lost access to opium poppy supplies in WWII but could be wrong)

There’s sort of a romance of opioid use in literature and film, especially historical...pretty people lazing around smoking pipes or ladies and their laudanum...the blown pupil fits that better than the constricted one which is why it’s *always* wrong I think.

If your opioid-addicted person has a blown pupil he is not a happy camper *at all* and will also be restless, sweaty, nose running, GI issues, pain, and muscle cramps so I always find the blown pupil drugged up character jarring.