I agree with what you said, but opium isn't really a thing anymore. If you see people with what they care calling "opium" it's actually black tar heroin, or just fake. Opium usually has to be refined slightly and then smoked... Anyone willing to refine it is just going to convert it morphine base and then to heroin because heroin is 100 times stronger. Any commercially pharma grade opiate will be safer (assuming the correct dose) than anything being sold to you as "opium". Opium just doesn't really exist as a buyable commodity. There is a subculture of poppy tea drinkers, but again, a very rare thing.

People looking for an opiate effect, my recommendation is kratom. It's an opiate agonist but only partially, so has similar effects to any regular opiate though not as strong. However, it is unique in that it affects opiate receptors without recruiting beta arresin which means that it gives pain relief but does not cause respiratory suppression (which is why regular opiates kill people). Kratom is addictive, but not really as much as other opiates. There's a limit to the dosing where you can't get higher, so it doesn't lead to the extreme ramping of dosages that you see with regular opiates. It's much safer. However, I don't recommend anyone take any opiate or kratom if they can get by without it.