The Heroin Harvest
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April is harvesting time for Poppy farmers in Afghanistan.
For twenty days the Taliban lay down their weapons and help the local farmers collect their crop.
201,000
Hectares under opium poppy cultivation worldwide
82% (164820 hectares)
Of this is in Afghanistan
37kg
Yield per hectare in Afghanistan
6,100
Tonnes of opium produced in Afghanistan
$125
Price of 1kg dry opium in Afghanistan (at source)
£50
UK Street price of 1g of heroin
The Taliban collect 1kg of resin in every 10kg produced by the farmers as “tax”. A character known only as the “businessman” purchases the rest. The Taliban sell their share and purchase weapons using the profits, weapons that they use against British soldiers in the province. The soldiers patrolling these fields are not allowed to do anything to disrupt the local farmers and the Afghan Opium economy. This is the job of the Afghan police counter narcotics teams. A job that seldom gets done. In Helmand alone last year only 3,000 acres of a possible 100,000 where destroyed.
Papaver Somniferum is a flower of many faces. To some it is just a nice looking plant that can be used as an ornament, to others it contains healthy oils for use in salads. To many the poppy brings priceless relief from pain in medicinal use. Some use the narcotic form for recreational purposes often with devastating consequences in their personal lives and health. The name roughly translates as “sleep bringing poppy”. I recently saw a photograph in The Times of soldiers from 2 Para patrolling through a field of opium poppies in Helmand, Afghanistan and I began to wonder how they saw the flower.
22 Comments
I hadn’t realised that this was such a large-scale business conducted in such an almost public way.
Very informative article.
Wish I had $125 and 1Kg.
The illicit opium trade is escential to the US economy, because hundreds of billions are laundered through the US and other national stock exchanges. So a good poppy crop is good for the US and other western economies. That was the main economic reason for us going into Afghanistan during a time when the Taliban had all but destroyed the raising of opium, the 9/11 attack was just the justification. Of course its bad for our troops and thousands of civilians and law enforcement personal that die each year as a result of the war on drugs, which objectives are to destroy and restrict the trade just enough to keep the price up. But that is just the price of easy money for the fat cats, after all its not their sons and daughters dying. So that why ally forces walk through poppy fields instead of destroying them.
i never knew this. I’ll have to look into it more but very interesting. I was just thinking of how it would affect the USA. Just another reason for me to not like heroin.
I like Heroine and am trying to make morphine from poppy seed opium.
Does anyone know how? Its for my dying grandmother.
I for one would like to know how to process the poppy into heroin, I’m thinking of all the $$ I could & would save just by growing and processing it in my back yard. Anyone know how??
P.S. and it’s not for my grandmother, it’s for me Aaron.
WOW! Very interesting article. I had now clue!
If you “liked” heroin so much you would know how to spell it.
Its chemical name is diacetylmorphine,If you know anything about chemistry that should give you enough info to figure out how to process it
make that 2kg for me
Organic Chemistry is what you need to know
I SPENT 18K ON REHAB BECAUSE OF THIS CRAP IT MAKES ME SICK THINKING ABOUT IT ALL BUT IT IS A NEAT LOOKING PLANT. VERY INTER…
First of all don’t give Dryson Dunnar any. He is already as high as a kite! Morphine and opiates really relieved my pain when I was wounded in Desert Storm and when my tibia was shattered in my leg and multiple other times. Opium Tea sounds relaxing but I cannot drink it because I am a US Marine. Oh Well. Maybe someday they will just legalize it and weed instead of spending billions fighting it.
Legalization would crush the black market and would stop the one way money grubbing type criminals from making billions.
thay have a war then chuk a bukket of morphine at it
My apologies Mr.Dunnar, but you are mistaken about any opium motive for the invasion of Afghanistan. 9-11 caused an entire country to cry; and, when countries cry, terrible things happen. Quite a bit of the opium being harvested over there is being purchased by legitimate pharmaceutical companies.
Thank you for showing me this well kept secret that nobody knows about.But like all good things each person should be responsible for their actions and dont let the drug do you-you do the drug–
9/11 had everything to do with us going to Afghanistan. But the Taliban does not use drug money. When they were in power there was a marked decrease in Afghani heroin production because drugs go against Taliban morals. I can’t imagine the horrors they brought upon dirt poor farmers who grew opium for some extra cents. Oh, and I can’t be for certain, but I can almost guarantee that no legit pharmaceutical company buys opium from Afghanistan. Most of the world’s legal opium comes from India, Turkey, and Tasmania. The ILlegal opium comes from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Columbia, and Mexico. I think Frank the Gunny’s got the idea. I personally have $250 in my pocket and will gladly take 2 kgs of opium, thank you.
how much morphine or heroin will a kg of poopy* make
man we’re going to hell for shooting it but i’d bet the tea may be the answer
please add some more information……nobody should wonder by reading this article which describes that a huge amount of poppy is cultivated on large scale under the very nose of nato forces….what is intersting factor is that actually the taliban , local warlords as well as nato army officers all of them or involved in this multi.million dollar buisnes…ironically they destroy whole of the towns by corpate bombing but not destroy the poppy fields because they also make money through this agriculturing….
I am a heroin user and know a bit about growing opium poppies from expierience.To get enough opium gum to be worth smoking,you need to grow at least 10sq meters of poppies.Then slit them just enough for the resin to seep out.When this dries,scrape it off the pods and dry out fully.Smoke.Enjoy!!! (But its easier to just buy some smack!.)