The climate of these parts of Asia seems peculiarly adapted to the growth of the species of poppy (papaver somniferum), from which opium is obtained ; accumulating in the juice of the plant the ...

"My father taught me how to grow poppies ten years ago," he says. "Until this year, I was able to produce 60 pounds of opium from my farmland." Crouching while his fingertips brush against the ...

The single white poppy, or rather the poppy, with white seeds, is generally considered the true opium plant. When the capsules are about half grown, or three or four days after the flower has ...

The San Diego Botanic Garden expands its collection of medicinal plants four-fold as scientists learn to harness their power.

While opium poppies have long flourished in rural Myanmar ... say they have little alternative but to grow the crop to survive. Rio de Janeiro Carnival 2025: See vibrant costumes and dancing ...

Scraping opium resin off a seedpod in Myanmar's remote ... "Everyone thinks people grow poppy flowers to be rich, but we are just trying hard to get by," he told AFP in rural Pekon township ...

And heroin made from Afghan opium still accounts for 95% of the ... levels of the crop seen since the Taliban last imposed a poppy-growing ban, in 2001. Production this year “will be negligible ...

For lack of better alternatives, most farmers are now growing wheat instead of poppies. The yield per hectare for this crop is many times lower than that of opium. Bjelica, who interviewed farmers ...

In 2024, opium prices reached $750 per kilogramme, a tenfold growth from $75 per kilogram in 2022 when the Taliban government banned poppy growing, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC ...

The economic crisis and war have pushed farmers and displaced people to turn to opium poppy cultivation ... In addition, intensifying fighting in growing regions and declining global demand ...