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

Posted by VancouverSun.com in Delta , Vancouver News on September 14th, 2010 at 1:02 pm METRO VANCOUVER — The Delta police drug section has seized 132 boxes containing opium poppy pods that could be ground into the drug Doda, police announced Tuesday. Read the rest here:  Leave a Reply Search Our Blog: Current Weather Vancouver, CANADA 16 °C Vancouver Live Tweets canucksbuzztap : Vancouver Canucks (Official Site) >> Vancouver Canucks 2010 main...Read Full Story

It’s not hard to find a field of poppies in the village of Jelawar, north of Kandahar. Some are hidden discreetly behind mud walls but others have been brazenly planted within sight of the main road. During a recent patrol, I accompanied Afghan National Army Captain Imran (he uses one name) and a group of U.S. civil affairs soldiers on a tour of Jelawar’s back roads as they tried to assess the extent of this year’s opium production. The first field we came to was a couple of hundred...Read Full Story

Think before you allow poppies to proliferate. Poppies rob a lot of goodness from your soil. Poppies and Vegetables Poppies grown close to purple sprouting broccoli and other brassicas will inhibit the plants and reduce your potential crop. Poppies that are planted close together have the ability to kill off other plants. Odd self sown poppies may not have a dramatic effect but better safe than sorry. Beans and Peas that ‘fix’ nitrogen back into the soil may not appear to suffer...Read Full Story

WASHINGTON ( Reuters ) - The United States has made headway in building up Afghanistan's counternarcotics forces, but the war-torn country needs more international help to hold onto those fragile gains, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. Top Defense Department, State Department and Drug Enforcement Administration officials told the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control that Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation was down, drug seizures were up and Afghan counternarcotics agents...Read Full Story

365 Day 186 The farm gardens are looking wonderful as they prepare for open days as part of the National Garden scheme, when homes open their gardens to the public. Way back on Day 5 I sculpted some poppy heads that I had seen in the flower beds and todays sculpt is based on the flowering poppies growing in the same spot. From within the wonderfully shaped buds, the crumpled petals, stamens and seed heads, emerge as stunning flowers, which seem to get bigger every year. There are many...Read Full Story