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Where do pharmaceutical companies get their opium?

A large percentage for the us companies is from india and turkey while pakistan also supplies quantities for other countries' pharmaceutical use.

Afghanistan produces over 80% of the opium for illicit use/the black market. I did a lot of research into the situatiom of opium production in that country. When the taliban was in power they irradicated well over 90% of the poppy production around 2000 and when the US overthrew the taliban production skyrocketed as the poverty stricken peasants needed guaranteed income. In fact, in 2002 or shortly after the invasion, the US actually had forces over their attempting to irradicate poppy production (and of course they largely failed).

Even though the taliban once ferociously pursued poppy irradication, now they are forcing farmers to use the opium funds to support their military efforts against the us.

It is very similar to the situation in colombia with cocaine, the left and rightwing terrorist/freedom fighter groups (depending on who you ask) are largely funded by cocaine production from peasants forced to grow coca as multinational giants co-opted coffee and banana production and massive companies like starbucks turned to much cheaper SE asian coffee for the majority of their products.

This is an interesting thread and I apologize if I veered off course a bit. The licit opium production, the blackmarket trade, violent/extremist groups and multinational corporate interest and involvement in the third world are all tied together creating an explosive situation throughout the world.

In the Bush era you may recall those ads saying when you buy drugs you support terrorism... There is some truth to this but its also true that if the US spent money transitioning peasant production to other agricultural products for export in afghanistan and other countries instead of spending money on apache helicopters and cluster bombs, they could further reduce illicit production with less cost and bloodshed.

The US and other western countries could buy afghani peasants opium for pharmaceutical use and cut off Taliban and other extremist groups funding or even pay them not to grow poppies with the same end for cheaper than trying to irradicate black market production AND fight the taliban. This would also NOT ravage the country and innocent peasants but fuck them right? We are America and need to blow shit up.
 
^ It's thought that the Taliban didn't actually eradicate the opium. I've read articles saying they just stockpiled it to either a) bring up the price, or b) save it for later for funding, or both.
 
Cane2theLeft said:
the US actually had forces over their attempting to irradicate poppy production (and of course they largely failed).
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I'm guessing the US troops decided to get high instead of eradicate poppy production?

Even though the taliban once ferociously pursued poppy irradication, now they are forcing farmers to use the opium funds to support their military efforts against the us.
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If the US had stayed out of everyone's business, this wouldn't be.

In the Bush era you may recall those ads saying when you buy drugs you support terrorism... There is some truth to this but its also true that if the US spent money transitioning peasant production to other agricultural products for export in afghanistan and other countries instead of spending money on apache helicopters and cluster bombs, they could further reduce illicit production with less cost and bloodshed.
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I don't think there's any truth to it.

The US Government knows that people aren't just going to magically stop using drugs, especially just because the US Government fucked up their foreign diplomatic relations with another country. Therefore, the U.S. Government, by not legalizing drugs, are supporting terrorism by allowing millions of Americans to help support terrorism.

Had the U.S. Government legalized drugs, there wouldn't be any terrorism being supported. Instead, the U.S. Government condones terrorism, and continues to allow them to get lots of money and power because tons of their citizens are opiate addicts.

We are America and need to blow shit up.
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What's actually happening is America is being drained of its blood slowly like a pig being slaughtered.

The money flow out of this country trickles into the hands of international cocaine and heroin producers and distributors. Every time someone else buys a bag of cocaine or heroin, part of that money will eventually reach the hands of someone outside of America, and that money will STAY outside of America. It's not coming back.

If we were to legalize drugs, we could produce drugs in this country to the point where we would be competing against the whole world's supply. We could make the price of drugs decrease, meaning the Taliban's opiate supply will not be a steady and constant source of money and power, and that means no one would have to rely on foreign sources of drugs.

However, the U.S. Government has set this up so that they can be drained of all their money, slowly, over time, while creating worthless distractions such as the War in Iraq, etc etc.

The people who make the most money having this done ensure that this will continue by leading the American people into ignorance of the international situation, and ignorance of what drugs are and what they do. The DARE program makes every drug look just as dangerous as the next - as if every drug were crack, or every drug were just as bad as huffing paint thinner or gasoline.

The reality of the situation is, America will be drained of its money, and the people who are allowing this to happen have a good slice of the pie coming their way, and when the silver lining has finally been pierced for the last time, they will flee the country, leaving it bankrupt and ignorant of what just happened.

Why do you think our economy is in the shitter? It's because our money is becoming devalued, and it's being pumped out of the country.

sixpartseven said:
^ It's thought that the Taliban didn't actually eradicate the opium. I've read articles saying they just stockpiled it to either a) bring up the price, or b) save it for later for funding, or both.
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I thought they tried to eradicate it on the grounds that it was against their religion to make money off of it, then when they realized it's completely what they need to get America off of their nut sack, they seized the opportunity and created a massive stockpile of opium, so as to make lots of money off it.

footclan said:
I've also read something similar relating to that. Apparently the poppies there (or at least a significant percentage) produce mainly thebaine.
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That's fine with me, buprenorphine is derived from thebaine. %)
 
^ Exactly. They didn't eradicate a shit-ton of it like most media outlets report; they stockpiled it instead. It is against their religion and they were going to eradicate it - and did for a while, but they didn't eradicate most of it - but decided against it.
 
sixpartseven said:
Some of the opium grown in South East Asia is used by pharmaceutical companies as well, if I remember correctly.

Despite a lot of opiates/oids being synthetic or semi-synthetic, pharmaceutical companies still need raw opium. Semi-synthetic opioids start with a natural opioids, and fully natural opioids like morphine and codeine can not be synthesized at all.
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where does fentanyl come into play or methadone?
 
^ they are fully synthetic, if thats what you're asking.
looking at their molecular structures will make the differences very apparent, and you'll be able to see what comes from opium alkaloids and what doesn't.

i think thats what you're asking.
 
most Poppies that are produced for use as pharmecuticals in the US come from turkey and india. in the US there is a policy that states 80percent of opium poppies or opium whichever that is used in the US comes from those two countires while 20 percent can come from elsewhere. it has been discussed alot recently that the US should include Afghanistan into that 80 percent or maybe just purchase all 100% from those three countires but for some reason this hasnt happened...
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I was going to mention this, known as the 80-20 rule

However, the 80-20 rule doesn't apply to thebaine
and since Indian and Turkish poppies produce extrmemly low amounts of thebaine (although high in morphine) pharm company's (2 in particular) set out to create a new variety of opium poppy high in thebaine (the same way Gregor Mendel experimented with peas), by the mid 90's both pharm companies succesfully produced high thebaine yeliding poppies, all for the production of one product, Oxycodone. (Hence the huge boom in Oxycodone in the late 90's with the release of Oxycontin) These new poppies were grown on an island called Tasmania (forgot where it is)
Of course the biggest customer of the Thebaine from these poppies was...Purdue! lol

That's just my 2 cents I could go on but I can't sit too long while in W/D
 
Captain- I was going to add a bit about.how legalizing would also change the dynamics a lot but I was on my phone, you make excellent points.

What I was saying about eradication by the taliban was from DEA sources showing their annual output which went from thousands of tons a year to like 28 in 2000... So they could have been stockpiling, idk. I've just seen a lot of reports about how the taliban pre-invasion had a massive irradication campaign.

Legalization would largely cut off the talibans funding, largely because the US comsumes much of that supply but there would still be funds from europe and elsewhere unless they too legalized.

I wasn't trying to say that if the US helped the afghanis transition to licit algricultural production it would cease drug production/consumption or end terrorism but that it would address funding that islamic extremists rely on... not completely cut it off, but affect it.

The US coffers are being drained... to support the military-industrial complex and a foreign policy that costs more than every other countries' defense spending combined.

Captain H you made some great points.
 
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I read somewhere that they order a shredded form of the plant they call "opium straw" and use that to extract the codeine, morphine and thebaine. They import it from legal suppliers outside of the USA according to the article. I can't remember where I read this, maybe National Geographic, it comes to mind for some reason. Anyways, I'll try and find it and post a link.
 
hazmat said:
I read somewhere that they order a shredded form of the plant they call "opium straw" and use that to extract the codeine, morphine and thebaine. They import it from legal suppliers outside of the USA according to the article. I can't remember where I read this, maybe National Geographic, it comes to mind for some reason. Anyways, I'll try and find it and post a link.
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i'd love to be on that boat sucking on a stem
 
Suprised with all the Ausies around here no one has said it yet but to add to what OPIATE420 said tasmania is south of Australia.

i had heard though that tasmanian pods had a good deal of morph and codiene (maybe those are the tasmanian pods seen on retailers websites and the pods you are referring to are different)
 
The majority of opium poppies used for the manufacture or extraction of pharmacuetical opiates come from India, Turkey and Australia. Other countries have limited production, but those three are the top producers by far.

Afghanistan and Colombia, and Mexico are thought to be the largest producers of illicit opium and opiate products.
 
Opiate 420 said:
These new poppies were grown on an island called Tasmania (forgot where it is)
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Tasmania is S of AUS. Isn't Giganticus or some other species/subspecies/whatever the correct term is grown there natively? Is Giganticus part of P Somniferum or is it P. Giganticus? Do the alkaloid concentrations vary by species as well as the ratios (ie is the Somniferum pod stronger overall with more morphine than codeine compared to another pod type like Giganticus etc)

EDIT - Need to l2read b4 replying. Well, anyway, ignore the 1st sentence.

hazmat said:
I read somewhere that they order a shredded form of the plant they call "opium straw" and use that to extract the codeine, morphine and thebaine. They import it from legal suppliers outside of the USA according to the article. I can't remember where I read this, maybe National Geographic, it comes to mind for some reason. Anyways, I'll try and find it and post a link.
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Not poppy straw? Poppy straw is any part of the poppy plant and classified as a C-I narcotic over here, a reason I have yet try PPT. Funny that every place is willing to send stuff and will try convince you it's fine when I know it isn't by our law. They need to think of the florists, lol, when they make these laws.
 
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