India has been a traditional producer of opium and has been recognised as such internationally. The Central Bureau of Narcotics licences farmers to cultivate opium poppy in the notified tracts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Such cultivation is only on Central Government account. The entire opium produced by the farmers is procured by the CBN and transferred to the Government Opium and Alkaloids Works. The GOAWs dry the opium, export it, supply some quantities to the State Governments for supplying to addicts, sell some quantities to (Ayurvedic) pharmaceutical companies and transfer the remaining quantities to its Alkaloids plans for extraction of alkaloids.
The GOAWs also manufacture many alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine, papaverine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, pholcodine, etc and sell them to pharmaceutical companies.
1. The cultivation of opium poppy as above for medical & scientific purposes as per actual requirements will continue. Simultaneously, the following areas will be explored:
(a) cultivation of opium poppy for production of concentrate of poppy straw (CPS) after ensuring adequate safeguards;
(b) encouraging the research institutions and companies to develop / import seeds to test and try out alkaloid rich varieties of opium poppy whether they are suitable for opium gum production or for production of CPS in India;
(c) encouraging research institutions and companies to import / develop and experiment with low alkaloid or alkaloid free varieties of opium poppy suitable for sole production of poppy seeds.
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