Papaver somniferum

Researchers at the University of York and the British Museum have discovered traces of opiates preserved inside a vessel from Cyprus dating back to the Late Bronze Age.

Police seized a total of 3,700 opium poppy plants in the region of Viotia in central Greece Tuesday and arrested four foreign nationals - three Indians, aged 36, 47 and 58, and a 28-year-old Pakistani.

Authorities are also looking for a 64-year-old Greek man.

Three of those arrested did not have residence permits.

Opiate production in Afghanistan has risen by 90% and reached a record 9,000 tonnes in 2017, according to the UN. Executive Director of the United Nations Drugs and Crime Unit, Yuri Fedotov, announced these figures at a session of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan.

The Taliban are controlling not less than a third of Afghanistan, the Pentagon has admitted, reports sega. 

In order to limit their financial resources, US aviation launched bombings against drug production workshops.

Afghanistan's opium production has risen sharply this year in comparison to last, according to an executive summary of the country's official opium survey released Sunday.

Opium production in the war-ravaged nation is up by 43 per cent, to 4,800 metric tons this year, according to a press release from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The end of April is the time for poppies to pop up in fields. Throughout May, and well into the month of June, fields of green wheat stalks celebrate the spring, dotted red with poppies. The poppy is also the symbol of martyrdom. Ancient Greek and Roman tombs were ornamented with pods of opium poppies representing the final eternal sleep, death.

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high in 2014, a United Nations report revealed Wednesday, highlighting the failure of the multi-billion-dollar US-led campaign to crack down on the lucrative crop.