ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a number of key features of poppy cultivation, and reviews the main literature on the history of the poppy and its usage. Poppies with high morphine content have been cultivated in tropical, subtropical and temperate climates all over the world. Clays are unsuitable because of their higher moisture content, since under heavy rains where the soil remains saturated for several days, the poppy will wither and die. Growing and harvesting opium are skills passed down the generations, and not always substitutable by alternative activities devised by international organizations or national governments. There are three main methods for the preparation and smoking of opium or its derivatives: chando, madak and dhoda. The chapter identifies five of the six historical stages of production identified occurred after independence, and provides an interesting political case study, with policies designed first to develop, patronise and extend opium production, and then to control and, ideally, eliminate it.
