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.

The poppies are grown by local farmers, who extract opium gum from bulbs and sell it to gangs such as the Sinaloa drug cartel, which transforms the raw material into heroin. "Every time we destroy ...

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 ...

JERUSALEM, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Opium traces have been discovered in Israel in vessels used in burial rituals by the ancient Canaanites, providing one of the world's earliest evidences of use of ...

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) ...

BANGKOK – 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 said ...