I was vexed but also oddly satisfied when he left off the question unanswered, leaving off with a cliffhanger at the end, such an ornate thing to do in current age of all-knowing Medium posts. I loved it, although then realized it's a teaser for his book on the subject.

This article led me to look into the etymology, it is indeed obscure: "According to tradition the word was coined with chemical suffix -ine (German -in) + Greek hērōs "hero" because of the euphoric feeling the drug provides, but no evidence for this seems to have been found so far" (https://www.etymonline.com/word/heroin)

Here's a great article on the history of opium and its use: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/on-the-cultural-history.... From here we learn that:

"Another sign that the opium poppy came late to Afghanistan is that there does not seem to be an original Persian name for the plant. In Afghanistan, a Turkic word – koknar – is used; kok mean “green” and nar means “pomegranate” (anar in Persian), which may be an allusion to the poppy pod’s shape. Opium is locally called taryak, which comes from the old Greek word theriac (7); in the Middle East and south Asia, this word is used more widely than just for opium."

In Turkey the word afyon is used (there's even a province named after it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afyonkarahisar#Etymology)) which is from Arabic آفيون (https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=Afyon), which itself was derived from the same Ancient Greek word that opium is derived from: όπος.

Interestingly according to Wikipedia early use of in China was "to aid masculinity, strengthen sperm and regain vigor" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium#China), understanding how/why a sedative was used as a Viagra-like purpose is beyond me.

The Chinese word is 鴉片 which also is derived from opium (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%B4%89%E7%89%87). It's rare to see a words from around the world to refer to something that ancient people knew to be derived from the same word.