I used just the sap from the pods and did a multiple scraping of all the pods over a two week period and combined everything into one ball.
And no, I wouldn't want to do opium everyday. Nut I also don't want to do vicodin or percocet everyday but thats just the way it is for me. (Multiple injuries from Iraq war) Better off natural than pharma-chemicals ya know?
I was aware that you could use the sap from the whole plant but when I grew I was under the impression that if you had over say 15-20 plants it wasn't really worth the work to extract that little amount. But you obviously know more about it than I. How do you extract from the rest of the plant anyhow?
use distilled water and make the PH level 5/ slightly acidic, I recomend useing lemons or vinegar. Heat the acidic solution to 150-160F, do not heat the solution over 170F(this will cause some of the alkaloids to decompose). You can use a meat/poultry thermometer to moniter the temprature.
Once your temp and PH are right add the roots, stems, leaves, pods, etc. to the heated solution. Now you can cook everything for around 2 hours. When you are done heating the mixture for 2 hours or so filter the liquid off and discard the plant material, make sure the liquid stays at 160 while you are filtering(do not let it cool, you will lose product). You can evaporate the water and have a crude extract, mix it with some alcohol.
OR
Reheat the solution to 150-160F, start you temps out on low and slowly raise the temps until you are at the desired temprature 160F. Be patient at this point because you can mess everything up if you heat the solution over 170F. After the temps reach 160F add some Sodium hydroxide/pickling lime and stir so the sodium hydroxide will react with everything in the solution. After the sodium hydroxide reacts with the solution Morphine and Codine will be soluble in cold water, let the solution cool to room temprature. Then, filter the solution and discard the solid waste, keep the liquid.
Slowly reheat the solution back to 150-160F and titrate the heated solution with Ammonium chloride(add a little at a time). You will see a percitatate form which will be a crude Morphine/Codine base. Now, cool the solution to room temprature and filter off the Morphine chunks.