The Heroin Harvest
Published by William Forsyth on April 24, 2008 in Asia-
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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.
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!.)
Duncan et al :::: Whoever thinks we spent billions on billions of dollars in a war, instead of just propping up the market with the money, just so we could increase illegal opium production, is delusional. We most certainly could have increased illegal production without invading Afghanistan. Afghanistan is not the only place it grows. Why would we invade a country rather than allowing it quietly. All we would have to do is not pressure certain countries (eg. Mexico, all of latin America, Ghana) to fight the production. Please use your mind before you get off on your “conspiracy theories”… Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the U.S. or any other country has “clean hands”. I’m not an idealist, I’m a realist. But invading a country to grow something we could let grow anywhere, is just not a likely cause for the war in Afghanistan.
Umm, Tony do you know how many Opium Wars there have been? You’re the delusional one if you think the USA would NOT do 9/11. It was definitely an inside jew job. Do YOUR research before you come on here with THEE SHEEP CONSPIRACY THEORY of which bin Laden, while on his dialysis machine, spent millions and millions of dollars to buy PLASTIC box cutters and train 26 hi jackers who hadn’t flown a plane in their lives to take down THREE World Trade Centers… The Mayor pulled the already laced WTC 5. And the hole for the Pentagon was 6 feet in diameter… The second trade center that was hit had a Missile on the bottom…
Do your research first. The USA is there to ROB the opium harvest for big pharma. Drugs are just as valuable as oil. And the CIA knows this.
Umm, Tony do you know how many Opium Wars there have been? You\’re the delusional one if you think the USA would NOT do 9/11. It was definitely an inside jew job. Do YOUR research before you come on here with THEE SHEEP CONSPIRACY THEORY of which bin Laden, while on his dialysis machine, spent millions and millions of dollars to buy PLASTIC box cutters and train 26 hi jackers who hadn\’t flown a plane in their lives to take down THREE World Trade Centers… The Mayor pulled the already laced WTC 5. And the hole for the Pentagon was 6 feet in diameter… The second trade center that was hit had a Missile on the bottom…
Do your research first. The USA is there to ROB the opium harvest for big pharma. Drugs are just as valuable as oil. And the CIA knows this.
Does anyone recall Vietnam (Laos) and the opium trade there? That right there should send a big red flag up,
that there is more involved in this war than just terrorism. It’s just a thought. I being a user of recreational drugs understand the black market and I believe That the Gunny (Above) Said it the best.
So for ~$7.5B US ($125/kg x 1000kg/MT x 6,100MT) we could buy all the opium in Afghanistan. Tax the growers and use the money to build roads and rail infrastructure. In three years we control 80% of the trade. Street cost of heroin shoots up and use crashes. Demand drops, then start reducing the price. After six years offer higher prices for other commodities.
the us phama industry buys 80 % of its opium and poppie straw from traditional producers ie afghanistan
All of this talk is making me
wanna shoot up.
The sadness I feel for the end user is great. Most turn to chronic use and are robbed of ones self, in the cost of ones, dignity, wealth, time, morals,obligations, reliability, health, relationships, production, dependabiliy, its almost like ijecting a disability! IN the end you loose it all ! get help stay sober, its the very best thing ever happend to me ! Its truly a new power found, a spiritual enlightenment, so to speak. Twenty years of nothingness but DOPE ! What a waste now im having the time of my life playing catch up ! Or not ? I now have the abilities to make logical decisions,and furthurmore care of the outcome of those often logical decisions,and learn from my mistakes! (often) Its a new found freedom that I had only known existed in my childhood memories! Choice to have the time, ability and resources to help myself and spill over is greatest gift of all is to help others ! its an un vicious circle . it helps me to help others! Sincerly JUST ME !
the war on drugs is a joke period!!!! we (the US) need to look at other countries drug policies that have more tolerance for drugs and adopt a non compative response to the issue…..less addicts less crime more money….proven fact….check out holland for instance
the war on drugs is a joke period!!!! we (the US) need to look at other countries drug policies that have more tolerance for drugs and adopt a non compative response to the issue…..less addicts less crime more money….proven fact….check out holland for instance