Opium poppy is an annual or biennial herb of the genus Papaver. It is the main ingredient for the preparation of opium, which has been prohibited for unauthorized cultivation. However, the ...

The opium poppy looks delicate and innocuous. But for Amitav Ghosh, an Indian writer, it is “one of the most powerful beings that humans have encountered in their time on Earth”. Mr Ghosh’s elegant ...

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan jumped 32% during 2022 despite the ruling Taliban regime's ban on narcotics, according to an annual report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The Taliban ...

A Taliban security personnel destroys a poppy plantation in Sher Surkh village of Kandahar province on April 11, 2023.Sanaullah Seiam—AFP via Getty Images For years, the international community tried ...

Myanmar has become the world’s biggest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan after the ruling Taliban imposed a ban on poppy cultivation, according to a new United Nations report. The Southeast ...

The price of opium in Afghanistan surged to $750 per kilogram in 2024, a tenfold increase compared to two years prior, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Wednesday.

BANGKOK — Myanmar, already wracked by a brutal civil war, has regained the unenviable title of the world’s biggest opium producer, according to a U.N. agency report released Tuesday. The Southeast ...

BANGKOK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar has become the world's largest source of opium, thanks to domestic instability and a decline in cultivation in Afghanistan, the United Nations said in a report on ...

Some of the 14th-century B.C.E. vessels found at the Tel Yehud burial site Photo by Ahmad Gharabli / AFP via Getty Images Researchers in Israel have discovered traces of opium in ceramic artifacts ...

The war’s intense conclusion and a drought combined to wipe out the famous Afghan pomegranate harvest in Kandahar Province, during a devastating national economic crisis. Farmers harvesting opium from ...

The move will have far-reaching consequences for the many farmers who turned to the illicit crop as a brutal drought and economic crisis have gripped the country. By Safiullah Padshah and Thomas ...