Heroin comes from the gum of opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). These flowers aren't difficult to grow, Wankel said. They thrive in temperate climates and are probably native to the Mediterranean ...

Heroin is derived from the opium gum found in the plant. For years, the Taliban had used taxes on drugs to finance its military. That all changed, however, with Omar’s eight-line message.

However, India is the only nation allowed to extract gum opium—skilled workers extract the latex that contains 70% of the morphine synthesized by the plant by lancing its flower-bearing pod.

So whatever the shortfall, a private company can bridge that gap. When you process opium gum, how concerned are you about illegal trafficking and how will you manage it? The menace of trafficking ...

UN Drug Experts Say Opium Production Has Leveled off in Myanmar, but Instability May Trigger a Rise BANGKOK (AP) — There has been a slight drop in the production of opium in Myanmar, the world ...

Before the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the illicit trade in opium, a gum produced from poppies, helped pay for their insurgency. The mullahs encouraged farmers to plant poppies and taxed ...

Some of the strongest and most meticulously constructed sections of the book concern the two citadel-like factories in Patna and Varanasi where raw opium gum was processed into wholesale slabs of ...

BANGKOK (AP) — There has been a slight drop in the production of opium in Myanmar, the world’s biggest source of the illicit drug from which heroin is derived, experts from the United Nations ...

In this undated photo made available Dec. 12 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), workers collect opium gum in a poppy field in Shan State, Myanmar. (UNODC via AP) ...