The Drug Process For Poppies

The opium poppy botanically known as Papaver somniferum is only grown in certain countries as it is illegal in most countries, with Afghanistan being one of the leading countries that supply approximately 70 percent of the illegal opium worldwide.

The process for the opium poppy begins with the poppy farmer planting the seeds; the money for the seeds in Afghanistan is often borrowed from the smugglers who will purchase the illegal drugs from the farmers. When the plant reaches a certain stage the pods will have the alkaloids extracted from them. This process is done using a tool called a nutshar, this has as many as four sharp blades on the tool and is used to make shallow slices in the pod that do not slice through the membrane that protects the seeds from the alkaloids.

Once the pods have been sliced the milky latex substance is left to dry on the pod, which means this extraction process must be done when there is going to be no rain or wind. When the alkaloids have seeped through the slices on the pod and have dried, they are a gummy substance that is taken off this is raw opium. This process is repeated as many as three times to ensure that all the alkaloids have been drained from the pods.

In most of these opium poppy fields there are crude labs set up where the opium can be quickly processed into morphine, which is easier to be smuggled out of the country.