# Afghanistan heroin production **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975 "2004-07-07T18:35:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/1 "2004-07-07T18:35:05Z")
Has the amount of heroin exported from Afghanistan changed since the invasion? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/2 "2004-07-07T21:46:23Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > Has the amount of heroin exported from Afghanistan changed since the invasion? Yes, it has gone up: > **[Afghanistan leads again in heroin production](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/aug/11/20030811-100220-8928r/)** > > Afghanistan has re-emerged since the U.S.-led war as the world’s leading source country for opium and heroin — rapidly returning to levels of the 1990s, when it produced about 70 percent of the world’s illicit opium supply, a U.N. report says. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/3 "2004-07-08T18:23:17Z")
**Tamerlane’s** link pretty much clears it up. Some of Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Karzai’s critics see it as a failure. Others say it’s a matter of compassion for the Afghan opium farmers and America’s heroin addicts. Mr. Bush is famous for being a compassionate conservative. Let us give credit for that. ---
**Author:** ![FlippyFly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FlippyFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlippyFly)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/4 "2004-07-08T20:00:38Z")
This seems like a simple question, but it really has me wondering. Where do the poppy seeds for my bagels come from? From my favorite uncle: > [@](#): > > Q: You’re telling me the poppy seeds in baked goods come from the same type of poppy used to make opium? > > A: Maybe not all, but a lot of them do. Of the 90 or so species of poppy, one, Papaver somniferum, is commonly used for two things: drugs and food. In the U.S. possession of opium poppies with intent to grow more is a crime. But possession of opium poppy seed is perfectly legal–in fact, you can (or could) buy opium poppy seeds from gardening catalogs. (But God help you if you try to grow anything with them–see Michael Pollan’s scary article on this subject in the April 1997 Harper’s). So-called bread-seed poppies (P. paeoniflorum) are also legal, though botanically they’re the same as P. somniferum. So is Afganistan also the worlds leading producer of food grade poppy seeds? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/5 "2004-07-08T21:56:41Z")
President Karzai gave a lecture here in Chicago a few weeks back, and during the Q&A he said he saw Afghanistan’s single biggest current challenge as curtailing opiate production. One might take issue that opium poppies should be Public Enemy #1, given ongoing levels of violence and dislocation and general mayhem there, but the guy is certainly entitled to his opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/6 "2004-07-09T02:04:47Z")
> [@Eva Luna](#): > > President Karzai gave a lecture here in Chicago a few weeks back, and during the Q&A he said he saw Afghanistan’s single biggest current challenge as curtailing opiate production. One might take issue that opium poppies should be Public Enemy #1, given ongoing levels of violence and dislocation and general mayhem there, but the guy is certainly entitled to his opinion. Perhaps he’s just being pragmatic? The west (well US) think it’s an issue so he has to feign concern. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/7 "2004-07-09T04:11:53Z")
> [@Jeff Lodoen](#): > > Perhaps he’s just being pragmatic? The west (well US) think it’s an issue so he has to feign concern. Concern, sure, I have no problem with that, especially given the violence that tends to accompany drug trafficking. But why the #1 issue? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/8 "2004-07-09T04:22:50Z")
Again I don’t think he really meant it. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/9 "2004-07-09T09:59:55Z")
Well that’s too simplistic. Poppy sales are destabilizing if the money supports anti-government groups. Not the Taliban perhaps since they tried to eradicate poppy cultivation (but in desperate times who nows); but there are plenty of warlords. If the government fails, all the other priorities go out the window. So maybe poppies are problemo numero uno. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-heroin-production/253975/10 "2004-07-09T15:38:43Z")
> [@FlippyFly](#): > > This seems like a simple question, but it really has me wondering. > > Where do the poppy seeds for my bagels come from? From my favorite uncle: > > So is Afganistan also the worlds leading producer of food grade poppy seeds? No, Canada and Holland are. In the U.S. and Canada, the law on poppies is sort of schizoid; possessing poppies for production of opium, morphine, or heroin is illegal, but dried poppy flowers are used in flowerr arrangements and poppy seeds are common in baked goods. [http://opioids.com/poppy.html](http://opioids.com/poppy.html) [http://www.erowid.org/plants/poppy/poppy\_law.shtml](http://www.erowid.org/plants/poppy/poppy_law.shtml) [http://www.culinarycafe.com/Spices\_Herbs/Poppy\_Seeds.html](http://www.culinarycafe.com/Spices_Herbs/Poppy_Seeds.html)