Who grows and sells poppy to big Pharm Co.?

So, after reading an article about the Taliban funding themselves with the poppy trade they once banned, when they were in power.
It started me wondering, who and where drug makers get the poppy/opium from to make the different pain pills that they sell.
I know that most of these are synthesized from opium but we still have to have the base right?
Morphine, methadone and vicodin etc.. are not able to be synthesized from nothing right?
So does anyone have an idea? does the government grow it in highly restricted areas?
I know that theories abound about the CIA buying and selling opium from Afghans. Ive even heard the ones about the CIA stuffing dead US soldiers bodies with the stuff and shipping it over here that way?
But ive been thinking there has to be a less sinister sounding way that its done.
Any ideas?

Mods: sorry if in wrong place, feel free to move it if it is

You are correct that most prescription opioid painkillers are derived from natural opium poppy products.

I believe most of it is grown in Turkey, but I'm not sure. Someone should look it up. Whatever its source it's imported and processed under tight DEA supervision and control.



[edit on 4/10/2007 by djohnsto77]

There are mostly synthetic opioids. No need for nature quite as much anymore with molecular pruning.

Originally posted by princeofpeace
There are mostly synthetic opioids.

There are synthetic oipoids but most still are either natural or semi-synthetic.

Oil? Maybe the chemical industry supplies the raw materials?

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I believe most of it is grown in Turkey, but I'm not sure. Someone should look it up. Whatever its source it's imported and processed under tight DEA supervision and control.

Which this is a little bit of a tangent, but I had heard there was a shortage of opium for pharmaceuticals worldwide? Wouldn't it help the US (us) in our continued war in Afghanistan to work the DEA to also control the sale of opiods from there? Since many farmers last I checked were still growing their's.

Just an idea I thought I would throw out there.

I am a pharmaceutical chemist and im here to tell you that you can make just about any compound imaginable these days from scratch (almost.) You can make synthetic heroin and compare it natural heroin and the only real difference is that one version was produced step-wise in a lab and the other was done via nature.

Originally posted by princeofpeace
I am a pharmaceutical chemist and im here to tell you that you can make just about any compound imaginable these days from scratch (almost.) You can make synthetic heroin and compare it natural heroin and the only real difference is that one version was produced step-wise in a lab and the other was done via nature.

Are you saying that they synthetic version would be exactly identical to the natural? I don't see how anyone can make a synthetic version of a natural plant out of nature and have them be identical.

They used to grow it in tasmania,australia bout 10 yrs ago.Kept under guard with blokes carrying machine guns.Dont know if they still do or not.

Yea, I didnt think you could make a derivative out of artificial chemicals. It was my understanding that you had to have the Base or in this case, pure opium, to synthesize morphine, heroin, methadone etc..
Other wise it would not be a true narcotic. If im correct, an example of a purely synthesized opiate TYPE drug, is Tramadol.

Can you make the molecule without the molecule?

Methadone is synthetic as is fentanyl. Tramadol, while it behaves somewhat like an opoid, is chemically unrelated to them.

It is possible to synthesize morphine from non-poppy precursor chemicals, but it's far easier to extract it from the plant. Morphine is used as is or chemically changed into other products such as heroin and codeine (codeine does naturally occur in opium, but in small amounts compared ot morphine). Thebaine is also extracted and used as a precursor to hydrocodone and oxycodone.

India grows enough opium poppys to supply 1/2 the worlds pharmaceutical opium.

www.uwmc.uwc.edu...

Interesting link, thanks whaaa. Truly amazing that such a powerful chemical exists in nature.

Originally posted by whaaa
India grows enough opium poppys to supply 1/2 the worlds pharmaceutical opium.

www.uwmc.uwc.edu...

It has recently been discovered that we ourselves make small amounts of morphine.

adsabs.harvard.edu...

So every human in the U.S. is technically in violation of narcotics manufacturing laws under the Controlled Substances Act.

[edit on 4/13/2007 by djohnsto77]

woohoo, is there any way i can stimulate the neuroblastoma cells on demand
ya i know, lame. time for bed now

Originally posted by djohnsto77
It has recently been discovered that we ourselves make small amounts of morphine.

adsabs.harvard.edu...

So every human in the U.S. is technically in violation of narcotics manufacturing laws under the Controlled Substances Act.

[edit on 4/13/2007 by djohnsto77]