The notoriety of Papaver somniferum, the “sleep-inducing poppy,” is only partly to do with its outlaw family. Opium poppies are grown for their edible seeds and for pharmaceutical uses. The type that ...

Where does opium come from? The opium poppy grows best in warm, dry climates. Most opium is grown in a long, narrow stretch of mountains in central Asia, an area that starts in Turkey and moves east ...

Kabul's opium throne has shifted east. The Taliban's 2022 ban on poppy farming in Afghanistan has driven cultivation across the border, with neighbouring Pakistan overtaking it as the world's new ...