Poppy straw is derived from the plant Papaver somniferum L., which has been cultivated in many countries of Europe and Asia for centuries. The purpose of its cultivation was originally, and still is principally, the production of poppy seed. The latter is used as a foodstuff and as a raw material for the manufacture of poppy-seed oil. In Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland the poppy is cultivated only, and in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, mainly for the sake of seeds.
Author: Willi Küssner
Pages: 1 to 6
Creation Date: 1961/01/01
Poppy straw is derived from the plant Papaver somniferum L., which has been cultivated in many countries of Europe and Asia for centuries. The purpose of its cultivation was originally, and still is principally, the production of poppy seed. The latter is used as a foodstuff and as a raw material for the manufacture of poppy-seed oil. In Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland the poppy is cultivated only, and in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, mainly for the sake of seeds.
So far as the order of magnitude of the consumption of poppy seed is concerned, I am able to quote only the following examples based on particulars supplied by the Federal Office of Statistics, Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Central Office of Statistics in The Hague, Netherlands, according to which imports into and exports from the Federal Republic of Germany in 1958 and 1959 were as follows:
|
1958
|
1959
|
|
|
Imports (kg)
|
3,588,000 | 3,886,000 |
|
Value (DM)
|
6,182,000 | 6,165,000 |
|
Exports (kg)
|
55,000 | 106,000 |
|
Value (DM)
|
115,000 | 150,000 |
The imports came mainly from the Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Turkey and Austria.
Poppy cultivation figures for the Netherlands are:
|
1957
|
1958
|
1959
|
|
|
Area cultivated (ha)
|
4,942 | 6,374 | 5,372 |
|
Yield of poppy seed per ha (kg)
|
1,028 | 960 | 761 |
|
Total yield of poppy seed (kg)
|
5,080,000 | 6,119,000 | 4,086,000 |
|
Poppy-seed exports (quantity) (kg)
|
4,480,000 | 5,084,000 | 3,996,000 |
|
Poppy-seed exports (value) (florins)
|
7,722,000 | 8,260,000 | 6,204,000 |
Poppy-seed production in other countries was approximately:
|
1956 (tons)
|
1957 (tons)
|
1958 (tons)
|
|
|
Austria
|
?
|
?
|
1,272 |
|
Czechoslovakia
|
8,000 | 5,800 |
?
|
|
Denmark
|
168 | 391 | 861 |
|
Federal Republic of Germany
|
1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
|
Yugoslavia
|
2,400 | 2,200 | 1,700 |
According to data furnished by I. Bayer ( [ 1] ), poppy cultivation in Hungary in recent years has been as follows:
|
Period
|
Hold
a
|
|
1930-1934
|
20,760 |
|
1935-1939
|
13,815 |
|
1940-1944
|
15,255 |
|
1945-1949
|
13,538 |
|
1950-1954
|
19,355 |
|
1955-1958
|
15,101 |
a The hold is a Hungarian unit of surface measurement equivalent to 0.57 hectare.
Accordingly, the average area cultivated annually has been 16,300 hold, or, at 0.57 ha per hold, about 9,300 ha. As the yield of poppy seed per hectare ranges from 800 to 1,000 kg, the resultant production of poppy seed is about 8,370,000 kg. I have no reliable data at my disposal on the very substantial production of poppy seed in Bulgaria, eastern Germany, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and the Asian countries. The examples quoted show clearly, however, that tens of thousands of tons of poppy seed are produced in Europe alone, and that the cultivation of poppy seed, embracing as it does an area of tens of thousands of hectares, is of great importance to agriculture and for the feeding of the population. On the other hand, poppy is cultivated as a medicinal plant for opium production. However, even where the poppy is cultivated for medicinal purposes, the quantity of poppy seed remaining after the opium harvest constitutes a factor that is important in the economic sense. The following particulars concerning opium production are to be found in the Permanent Central Opium Board's report, 1959, p. IX (E/OB/15).
"In 1958, India accounted for more than two-thirds (657 t) of the world production of opium (939 t), the remainder being contributed by Turkey (162 t), the Soviet Union (93 t) and four other countries (Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Japan and Bulgaria), with an aggregate contribution of 27 t."
|
Hectares
|
|
|
1954-1955
|
17,578 |
|
1955-1956
|
17,474 |
|
1956-1957
|
24,003 |
The soporific and narcotic effect of certain substances contained in the poppy has long been known and utilized in medicine. It is this narcotic effect that has led to their abuse by addicts. This abuse originally took the form of opium-eating and opium-smoking, practices that first arose in the east, where they assumed dangerous proportions for a time, but have now generally been successfully restricted by government action. With the discovery and industrial production of opium alkaloids the use of morphine and its derivatives came into being, their use now far outstripping that of opium itself, both as a medicament and as a drug used by addicts.
Until about thirty years ago, these alkaloids were manufactured from opium exlusively. All earlier attempts to use the poppy plant directly as a raw material for the production of morphine, avoiding the time-consuming process of producing the opium-i.e., incising the poppy-capsules and scraping off the congealed opium juice- failed because of the inadequate technical facilities then existing. Just as it was at one time impossible in the metallurgical industry, in the absence of the large-scale plants now available, to extract precious metals from low-grade ores, it was not possible successfully to process poppy straw, whose morphine content is only about one-fiftieth of that of opium, for the purpose of morphine production.
No change occurred until the Hungarian J. Kabay made his discovery. This, between 1930 and 1935, opened up possibilities which were further developed technically in the following years, by J. Kabay and others in Hungary and by opiate manufacturers in other countries, and resulted in the achievement of a large production of morphine from poppy capsules. According to the report of the Permanent Central Opium Board, 1959 (E/OB/15, p. 17), 14,022,152 kg of poppy capsules and straw were processed into morphine in 1958, the average yield being 0.16 %. This corresponds to a morphine production of 22,003 kg. Some countries, such as Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway and Poland have, by the application of this discovery, been able to dispense with imports of opium.
The use of the fresh or dried whole poppy plant, in accordance with the original Kabay process, has, however, proved to be impracticable. The present generally recognized practice calls for the use of the mature, seedless poppy capsules as a raw material for production purposes, these capsules having been hitherto thought to be a valueless by-product of poppy cultivation, and accordingly disregarded. It should be emphasized that morphine is predominantly localized in the mature capsule of the poppy plant. The seeds are completely free from alkaloids, and the roots, leaves and stalks contain them in such trifling quantities that in practice they are nearly unusable as a source of alkaloids ( [ 1] ).
|
percentage of morphine
|
|
|
Seedless capsules
|
0.354 |
|
Top third of the stalk, with leaves
|
0.038 |
|
Middle third of the stalk, with leaves
|
0.021 |
|
Bottom third of the stalk, with leaves
|
0.018 |
|
Roots
|
0.032 |
|
Percentage of morphine content Stalk |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Country |
Stalk |
Capsule |
|
A
|
0 | 0.232 |
|
B
|
0.018 | 0.138 |
|
C
|
0.016 | 0.495 |
|
D
|
0.015 | 0.378 |
|
E
|
0.018 | 0.358 |
Accordingly, all efficiently run factories processing poppy capsules prescribe a maximum length of 10 cm for the part of the stalk to be included. This requirement places cultivators under an obligation to supply only the stalkless capsules, and not the entire poppy straw ( [ 6] ).
The oval poppy capsule has an average height of 4 cm and its average weight, after harvesting and in a seedless, air-dry condition, is 3 g. The stalk, at the end of which the poppy capsule is carried, is about 100 cm long on the average, and weighs about 10 g. The weights being as here described, and the morphine being distributed according to the pattern already depicted, a farmer wishing to procure a raw material that can be used for morphine production merely has to select a small proportion of the total poppy straw left over from the poppy-seed harvest. Experience shows that farmers undertake this work of selection only if collecting points and intermediate depots with favourable transport facilities are available and the remuneration for the work performed is adequate. If all poppy cultivators were required to surrender the entire harvest of poppy straw inclusive of the stalks, enormous quantities - something like 100,000 t - of this material would accrue in Europe, and the necessary storage and processing facilities for it would be lacking. If poppy straw should, however, mean only straw intended "for the manufacture of alkaloids" ( [ 6] ), it is difficult for the farmer to see at what point this is so intended. Anyway, the term "poppy straw" as hitherto commonly and widely used is not clear, with the result that there is manifestly no clear distinction between poppy capsules and poppy straw even in the statistics furnished by governments to the Permanent Central Opium Board. It is difficult to understand, for instance, why according to the Board's report for 1959 1 some countries should have processed, in different years, sometimes poppy straw alone and sometimes poppy capsules alone, with nearly the same morphine yields.
It must also be stressed that the alkaloid content of poppy capsules is, from a general agriculture view, unrelated to the purposes for which the plant is grown. In other words, there are no special varieties of poppy which have no alkaloid content, or a very low one, and are suited only to poppy-seed production; nor are there such which have a high alkaloid content and can be used for the production of opium but not for the production of poppy seed. Although a warm climate promotes the maturing of the poppy and improves the yields in both seeds and alkaloids, it is a proven fact that poppy grown in Germany or the Netherlands for the pur-
1Poland, 1955: 2,239,000 kg of poppy straw, morphine 0.12%. Poland, 1956: 3,103,880 kg of poppy capsules, morphine 0.14%.
Argentina, 1955: 431,000 kg of poppy capsules, morphine 0.23%.
Argentina, 1956: 593,000 kg of poppy straw, morphine 0.19%.
Argentina, 1957: 127,800 kg of poppy capsules, morphine 0.15%.
Argentina, 1958: 95,000 kg of poppy straw, morphine 0.14%.
poses of poppy-seed production can yield capsules with an alkaloid content as high as that of capsules from poppy grown in Yugoslavia for the purposes of opium production. This fact is apparent from the results of thousands of analyses of poppy capsules of different origins. Some of these analyses have been published (5).
|
Country
|
Number of analyses
|
Minimum morphine content (%)
|
Maximum morphine content (%)
|
Average for all analyses (%)
|
|
(%)
|
(%)
|
(%)
|
||
|
A
|
12 | 0.23 | 0.56 | 0.39 |
|
B
|
30 | 0.38 | 0.62 | 0.42 |
|
C
|
140 | 0.21 | 0.89 | 0.53 |
|
D
|
220 | 0.18 | 0.70 | 0.37 |
|
E
|
6 | 0.32 | 0.44 |
-
|
|
F
|
2 | 0.61 | 0.67 |
-
|
|
G
|
4 | 0.10a | 0.71b |
-
|
Capsules from which opium had been extracted.
bUnlanced capsules (no opium extracted).
If, therefore, control measures relating to poppy capsules were to be instituted as early as at the stage of cultivation, it would be necessary for them to be applied, without distinction, to all poppy cultivations in all countries. As these cultivations are scattered over tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of agricultural undertakings, such a control, or a regulation under which the entire yield of "poppy straw" was required to be surrendered, could be enforced only at very great expense for supervision and registration and for transport and storage, or on the basis of complete prohibition of the poppy plant. The latter would, without doubt, fall very hard on the food-production and agricultural sectors, and would entail decisions of an extremely serious nature.
To sum up, then, it can be said that poppy cultivation proceeds in two directions: first, for the production of poppy seed and poppy-seed oil, and secondly for the production of opium. Cultivation for opium production is controlled and regulated by the respective governments, often on the pattern of the Indian control system as incorporated in the United Nations Opium Protocol of 1953 and in the Third Draft of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (E/CN.7/ AC.3/9). In view of the fact that the poppy capsules, being a by-product in the course of poppy-seed production, have since 1935 been capable of being used as a raw material for the extraction of morphine, the question has been raised whether poppy cultivation should be controlled in the same way as opium in all countries- even those which do not produce opium- so as to prevent abuses. The question is complicated by the fact that poppy cultivation in most European countries is regulated exclusively by the demand for poppy seed for nutritional purposes and for the extraction of oil, and not by the opiates manufacturers' requirements of capsules.
At what point would a control of poppy capsules be most effective in the prevention of abuses ?
These abuses may relate ( [ 1] ) to the uncontrolled supplying of individual addicts, or ( [ 2] ) to the supplying of illicit drug factories.
In earlier times the dried and immature poppy capsules, known as Fructus Papaveris immaturi, were used to some extent pharmaceutically as "a quieting and soporific agent, as a sedative, in colic pains, and externally in pain-relieving poultices" ( [ 7] ). In this connexion it should also be noted that infusions of poppy capsules were used, in ancient and primitive medicine, to quieten infants. Nowadays, however, this practice, strongly opposed on medical grounds, has almost disappeared and the substances from which such infusions are made are, in most countries, obtained only on prescription.
One of the questions to be considered now is whether morphine addicts can satisfy their craving by consuming poppy capsules or simple preparations derived from them." Simple preparations" should be understood to mean tea-like infusions in water, or decoctions, which can be prepared in the home. The production of concentrated preparations of alkaloids for private use can be ruled out, as it calls for the equipment of a chemical laboratory and very specific expert knowledge. Although no case is, so far as I am aware, mentioned in the literature or in United Nations documents in which narcotics addicts have misused poppy capsules, it is appropriate to discuss to what extent such misuse is theoretically possible.
The following possibilities, for example, are open to a morphine addict: The morphine content of poppy capsules is said to be 0.28%. I have taken this figure from documents of the purchasing department of E. Merck, A.G., chemical factory, Darmstadt. This average has been obtained from a total of 20,967,755 kg of poppy capsules of German, Austrian, Czechoslovak, Polish and Yugoslav origin in the period 1936-1956. These are carefully chosen capsules, which were obtained on the orders of west German manufacturers of opium products.
|
Year
|
Total amount (kg)
|
Average morphine content according to analysis (%)
|
Total morphine (kg)
|
| 1936 | 333 341 | 0.19 | 633 |
| 1937 | 356 312 | 0.37 | 1 318 |
| 1938 | 14 290 | 0.27 | 385 |
| 1939 | 126 034 | 0.29 | 365 |
| 1940 | 1 106 272 | 0.15 | 1 659 |
| 1941 | 359 290 | 0.15 | 538 |
| 1942 | 1 689 827 | 0.26 | 4 393 |
| 1943 | 3 643 287 | 0.32 | 11 658 |
| 1944 | 497 032 | 0.31 | 1 540 |
| 1945 | 129 850 | 0.32 | 415 |
| 1946 | 702 894 | 0.29 | 2 038 |
| 1947 | 1 262 492 | 0.39 | 4 923 |
| 1948 | 2 092 424 | 0.16 | 3 347 |
| 1949 | 1 488 818 | 0.39 | 5 806 |
| 1950 | 560 815 | 0.31 | 1 738 |
| 1951 | 1 481 580 | 0.29 | 4 296 |
| 1952 | 2 370 749 | 0.39 | 9 246 |
| 1953 | 1 368 944 | 0.34 | 4 654 |
| 1954 | 930 842 | 0.18 | 1 690 |
| 1955 | 202 862 | 0.23 | 466 |
| 1956 | 249 800 | 0.31 | 774 |
| 20 967 755 | 61 882 |
This average content varies considerably - i.e., from 0.15% to 0.39%. The extraction degree is 40-50%, and the capsules have a very marked swelling and absorptive capacity. An aqueous decoction of 50 g of poppy capsules, for example, corresponding to a volume of roughly 600 cc of the broken capsules, with 1,000 cc of acidified water, would give no more than about 600 cc of filtrate, which would contain roughly a quarter, or 0.035 g, of the morphine contained in the capsules used. The relative morphine content of this solution would thus be 0.006%.
In order to obtain the doses of morphine required for an addict, this decoction would have to be consumed by the litre. Since, however, the morphine content of the capsules varies and the degree of extraction resulting from decoction is not constant owing to various factors such as the degree of crushing, the pH value, etc., approximately accurate dosing is altogether impossible. Apart from small quantities of morphine, this decoction also contains other alkaloids and extractive by-products which have undesirable subsidiary effects and a bad taste. Addicts, however, require a measurable and rapid effect. This, in fact, is the reason why so far as is known no morphine addicts - including those, if any, who live in the very midst of poppy-growing areas - have chosen to eat poppy capsules or to drink decoctions produced from them. For these reasons poppy capsules do not constitute a danger for addicts, a fact borne out by many years' experience.
The most important danger of the abuse of poppy straw would, however, be if it were to be used by clandestine manufacturers in the extraction of morphine. Kabay's original technique for the processing of poppy straw ( [ 8] ) has been the subject of the following critical analysis contained in the publication by H. M. Wuest & A. J. Frey ( [ 5] ):
"The process is said to yield 0.07-0.08 per cent morphine, related to the poppy straw used.
"If, to begin with, we consider the quantity of the drug which would be required in a morphine factory of average size using Kabay's method, we realize what enormous quantities of poppy straw would have to be processed. Let us take a morphine factory with an annual output of 1,200 kg, i.e. a monthly output of 100 kg of morphine, as an example. According to Kabay, the annual yield requires 1,200 x 1,450 kg = 1,740 t of poppy straw. The straw is extremely bulky, occupying a space which is at least ten times its own weight (17,400 cbm) even if pressed. As farmers do not store this worthless material in their sheds, the processing factory must buy the straw immediately after the harvest and provide storage room in which it can be protected against humidity. If the straw is piled up 6 m high, for example, a storage shed 100 x 30 m in area and at least 8 m in height will be required. To obtain the annual supply, 300 very large van loads would be needed. A considerable amount of costly manual labour or expensive handling equipment will be required to unload and stack the drug.
"If the factory confines itself to producing five batches of the drug per week, 7,250 kg of poppy straw will be required daily. This quantity must be crushed, pastified, lixiviated by an acid extracting agent, filtered and rewashed; moreover, arrangements must be made for the daily disposal of the drug extracted, because during the hot season it rapidly ferments and produces an unbearable stench.
"For aqueous acid extraction, 50 to 80 cbm of liquid are required which, if the counterflow principle is used, remain continuously in the machine. No more than a passing reference may be made to the difficulties arising out of the use of diluted acids as extracting agents. Even if wooden vessels are largely used for the extraction products, the problem of providing acid-proof fittings and joints for the individual appliances remains. The daily processing of the above quantities of liquid, the evaporation of not less than 30 cbm a day (the minimum quantity if counterflow is available) and the handling of not less than 15 cbm of moist sediment make considerable demands on the equipment. Industrial chemists will have no difficulty in appraising the very different situation obtaining in the manufacture of an equivalent amount of morphine from opium, where 40 kg of 12 per cent opium is used per day, yielding roughly 400 liters of liquid substance."
The improved Kabay technique no longer uses poppy straw, but poppy capsules ( [ 1] ); however, here too the considerably diluted extracts have to be carefully evaporated in large distillation installations. This concentrate must subsequently be treated with solvents and be reconcentrated. Only then can the raw morphine be precipitated by means of alkalies. The yield from this process is said to be 50% of the amount theoretically determined by analysis. In order to manufacture 10 kg of morphine in the form of raw morphine, here, too, 80,000 kg of poppy capsules with a morphine content of roughly 0.25% will have to be processed. If the loose weight of the capsules is roughly 60-80 g per litre, this would correspond to a volume of not less than 1,000 m 3= ca. 16 medium-size railway wagons. For the first extraction of the above amount of poppy capsule approximately 25 times its weight of water - i.e., roughly 2,000 m 3 - would be required, and most of the liquid mass would have to be distilled with an appropriate amount of heat vapour and cooling water.
The more effective method of the firm of Hoffmann La Roche ( [ 9] ) operates similarly with an aqueous calcialkaline extraction and subsequent liquid-liquid extraction of the weak extracts with organic solvents that do not blend with water. According to the method of the firm of E. Merck, the alkalized poppy capsules are extracted by a circulation process involving organic solvents, the extracts being thereafter treated with acidified water. However, in the case of this process, too, the size of the equipment must correspond to the large quantities of raw material required. This means that the vessels for extraction, solution and precipitation must hold several thousand liters, and that filtration and distillation installations of corresponding size will be needed. This will necessarily include crushing equipment and enormous storage sheds, because the harvest is gathered in only once a year, and supplies have to be kept in dry storage for a whole year.
I have played a not unimportant part in developing and building up and, later, managing such a factory, and I can therefore give an assurance, based on a close knowledge of the facts, that none of the processes can be used industrially without an investment of the order of several million DM, if the factory is to have an average capacity of processing 2-3 t of raw materials per day (i.e., a minimal commercial production of 100 kg of morphine per month).
In the abnormal circumstances of illegal manufacture, very different criteria will probably apply. The fact remains, however, that a number of complicated installations of certain minimum sizes will be required. For the manufacture of one kg of morphine by the relatively simple Kabay process operating with aqueous extraction, an average of 700-800 kg of poppy capsules will have to be used, occupying a volume up to ca. 10,000 litres. Even if the enormous price for heroin on the illicit market, which lies between $1,500 and $10,000 per kg, could be realized, the production of a few kg of morphine or heroin from poppy straw would be commercial nonsense, because it would require the procuring of bulky machinery costing between $100,000 and $1,000,000. In contrast, only about 9 kg of opium, with a volume of about 9 litres, are required to produce 1 kg of morphine, the raw morphine being directly precipitated after the opium has been dissolved in a concentrated aqueous solution and purified. In built-up areas, even an extremely small factory for the processing of poppy capsules would therefore not remain unnoticed. In uninhabited areas, on the other hand, there would be no source of power, such as steam and electricity and no means of transporting the enormous quantities of raw and auxiliary materials. The illegal manufacture of opium alkaloids from poppy capsules is therefore simply not feasible. It should be remembered, moreover, that all these difficulties do not exist in the case of use of opium which may be obtained through illegal channels.
The above facts and figures prove that
Poppy capsules must be regarded as a drug which, as far as direct consumption is concerned, cannot produce or promote drug addiction;
Poppy capsules are virtually useless as a raw material for illegal opiates manufacturers. They should therefore be viewed quite differently from opium for control purposes.
Man's drug addiction originated with the use of opium, and it is this concentrated juice of the poppy plant which even today is extremely dangerous, not only because of direct consumption, but also - and above all - because it is a convenient basic material for the illicit manufacture of morphine. Poppy capsules are very far from being as dangerous.
All these facts and figures answer the above-mentioned question of the point at which a control of poppy capsules would be necessary to prevent abuse. After careful and concientious examination, the conclusion emerges that in those countries which do not produce opium there is no good reason why their extremely widespread cultivation of the poppy, which has been practised for centuries and is intended for the production of poppy seeds, should - merely because of the incidental production of poppy capsules - be subject to the same control measures as cultivation of poppy in opium-producing countries. Anyway, it can be seen from the seizure reports received by the Secretariat of the United Nations, that as far as it is known "poppy straw" does not appear in the illicit traffic and has never been used as raw material by clandestine manufacturers of morphine.
A very considerable body of practical experience relating to the acquisition and processing of poppy straw as raw material seems to indicate that the existing international and national control provisions are sufficient to prevent abuse - i.e., that it is necessary only that drug manufacturers account for the amount of poppy straw or capsules acquired and used in the manufacture of morphine. If, however, more control is considered to be necessary, reference may be made to the legislation of Switzerland ( [ 10] ) and Austria ( [ 11] ), as well as to the provisions of the United Nations Opium Protocol of 23 June 1953 ( [ 12] ) and the First Draft of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs ( [ 13] ).
In Switzerland, poppy is controlled only when used for the manufacture of alkaloids and must in this case be declared by the manufacturer to the competent authorities ( [ 10] ).
In Austria, farmers may deliver poppy straw only to licensed factories ( [ 11] ).
Article 4 of the United Nations Opium Protocol of 23 June 1953 provides as follows:
"A Party which permits the cultivation and use of the poppy for purposes other than the production of opium shall, whether or not it also permits the production of opium:
Enact all such laws or regulations as may be necessary to ensure:
(i) that opium is not produced from poppies cultivated for a purpose other than the production of opium, and
(ii) that the manufacture of narcotic substances from poppy straw is adequately controlled;
Transmit to the Secretary-General copies of any laws or regulations so enacted; and
Transmit annually to the Board, at a date fixed by it, the statistics of poppy straw imported or exported during the previous year for any purpose whatsoever." ( [ 12] )
Section 31 of the First Draft of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (E/CN.7/AC.3/3) provides as follows:
"The Parties undertake to apply to poppy chaff the sections of the present Convention providing for control of the international trade in drugs.
"If they permit the use of poppy chaff in the manufacture of opium alkaloids they shall also apply to poppy chaff the domestic control régime required for drugs under this Convention, provided that they may exempt such poppy chaff as is, and as long as it is in the possession of the original cultivators, or of owners or managers of poppy seed mills. They shall not permit cultivators, or owners or managers of poppy seed mills to surrender poppy chaff except to licensed manufacturers of drugs, licensed exporters of poppy chaff or appropriate government agencies (state monopolies of the manufacture of and/or the trade in drugs). The term ' surrender' as used in this section shall not include the transfer of poppy chaff by its original cultivator to a near-by farmer for fodder and/or straw, to the owner or manager of a poppy seed mill, or to the return of such poppy chaff by the owner or manager of a mill to the original cultivator." ( [ 13] )
Such legislation, combined with strict control of opium production where permitted and medical supervision which requires the pharmaceutical use of poppy capsules in decoctions or other galenic preparations to be subject to prescription, is fully sufficient, in my view, to prevent abuse of poppy cultivation in all countries.
I. BAYER, "Manufacture of alkaloids from the poppy plant in Hungary ", Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. XIII, No. 1.
02G. HERCZOG & F. OROS, Statisztikai Szemle 37, 1082 (1959).
03Information supplied by the Production Branch of the Statistics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, from the publication by the Indian Commercial Intelligence Department of the Government of India entitled Area and Production of Principal Crops in India, 1956-57.
04W. KÜSSNER, Scientia pharmat. 12, 44 (1941).
05H. M. WUEST & A. F. FREY, Festschrift Emil Barell (1936).
06Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, paragraph reference 27 (third draft, E/CN.7/AC.3/9).
07HEGI, Flora von Mittel-Europa IV, 1, p. 35.
08Hungarian Patent No. 109788,of 1 May 1934.
09Swiss Patent No. 16984, of 7 June 1935.
10Switzerland, Federal Act on Narcotic Drugs of 3 October 1951 Regulations of 4 March 1952, article 3.
11Austria, Narcotic Drug Order, section 4.
12United Nations Opium Conference, Protocol of 23 June 1953, article 4.
13First draft of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, section 31 (E/CN.7/AC.3/3).
