Opium

According to a recent press release by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Afghanistan is currently the world’s largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin. In 2005, most of the heroin sold in Europe was thought to originate from Afghanistan. Strategies are constantly being sought to eradicate cultivation of the opium poppy in this country. One of the main problems to overcome is that a majority of Afghan farmers who grow poppy do so because they have no other viable...Read Full Story

KABUL: Afghanistan Iran and Pakistan on Monday agreed to bolster regional cooperation to combat drug smuggling at a time when the cultivation of illicit opium poppy is increasing. Afghanistan provides about 90 percent of the world’s opium, the raw ingredient used to make heroin, and the U.N. and Afghan government have long tried to wean the country off the lucrative crop. Money from the sale of opium is also used to fuel the insurgency, helping to buy weapons and equipment for the Taliban...Read Full Story

CHICAGO ( Reuters ) - U.S. efforts to eradicate Afghanistan 's opium poppy crops, which cover an area about the size of New York City , have been "unsatisfactory," Russia 's anti-drug czar said Thursday. Russia is the world's largest per capita consumer of heroin and is coping with an epidemic of HIV/AIDS spread by dirty needles. Afghanistan has long been the world's leading producer of opium, used to make heroin, and one-quarter of its production traverses its porous border with former...Read Full Story

Harvest of Hypocrisy? UK Opium Poppy Farming Kept Hush-Hush by grtv The “War on Drugs” that came soon after the “War on Terror” is being decisively lost. Ten years after the US invasion Afghanistan remains the world’s biggest opium poppy producer. Meanwhile, the UK is making inroads to the market. As the West struggles to destroy drug production in Afghanistan, Britain harvests a new crop of poppies to plug a growing painkiller shortage. Some believe that is counterproductive. In the...Read Full Story

I picked some long thin pods from my Californian Poppy ‘Eschscholzia’ plants and left them in a dish on a sunny windowsill. Within 24 hours the mature pods had dried and started to open. The dried pods had curled and expelled the seeds naturally. After 48 hours I had plenty of seed to collect for subsequent sowing. I picked pods that seemed mature and were starting to brown. The seed in green pods may have been under-developed and not viable. The plants will also have self sown from...Read Full Story