For the past 6,000 years, humans have cultivated poppy flowers, including Papaver somniferum, which is one of several species ...

ZHARI, Afghanistan (AP) - It's the cash crop of the Taliban and the scourge of Afghanistan - the country's intractable opium cultivation. This year, many Afghan poppy farmers are expecting a windfall ...

Poppy seeds come from a species of poppy plant called Papaver somniferum. “Somniferum” is Latin for “sleep-bringing,” which hints that it might contain opiates – powerful compounds that depress the ...

Bangkok (Thailand), 3 December 2025 – Myanmar’s opium poppy cultivation is at a ten-year peak, the United Nations Office on ...

CHAPARHAR, Afghanistan -- Three months ago, a truckload of government workers arrived at Malik Ziauddin's village, accompanied by armed guards. Wielding sticks and sickles, they beat and chopped at ...

TALBOZANG, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Fifty-year-old Abdul Wadud walked for two hours across Afghanistan's remote northern mountains to hear a police commander give yet more promises of aid for those who ...

A jar of poppy seeds sitting open next to two poppy seed bagels. - Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock It's tempting to wonder if that little jar of grocery store poppy seeds in your pantry could do more than top ...

KABUL -- The Taliban make Afghanistan's opium business easy, offering credit, seeds and fertilizer to farmers to grow the drugs that fuel the insurgency. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who ...