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Thursday, June 24, 2010 (11:15:38) |
| Tags : India, United Nations, Drugs, Opium |
India seems to be producing its own opium poppy: UN
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| United Nations, June 24: The latest report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) came up with a revelation that India is the highest consumer of heroine in South Asia. Not only that, the sub-continent also seems to produce indigenous opium poppy seeds considered as the raw material for heroine.
India reportedly consumes 6 per cent of the opium that is not converted into heroin just after Pakistan which consumes 7 percent.
Statistic further reveal that India consumed 17 metric tonnes of heroine in 2008 and that figure has seen a major leap to about 70 mt per year.
Moreover, the opium consumed in India is largely homemade and not imported from Afghanistan. The UN report further added that Indian government has given no indication of foreign-sourced opium being seized or trafficked into India.
If this is to be believed then India must be resorting to illegal production of some 1,500-2,000 hectares of opium poppy within the country or else India could not have consumed 6 percent of the global consumption.
Research has discovered the practice of illicit opium poppy cultivation in Nepal and also along the border areas of Bangladesh and India. |
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