Poppy straw

Over 10,000 kg of poppy straw, under the cover of cattle feed, has been seized by the Central Bureau of Narcotics in the last 1 year.

• Poppy straw – It is the husk left after the opium is extracted from the pods which also contains a very small morphine content.
• Drug – It is one of the narcotic drugs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS).

India is one of the few countries that legally cultivate opium poppy and is the only country on earth that illicitly produces opium gum.

• Legal regulation – Possession, sale, use, etc. are regulated by the State Governments under the State NDPS Rules.
• Farmers sell the poppy straw to those licensed by the State Governments to purchase poppy straw and any excess poppy straw is ploughed back into the field.
• Responsible authorities – The Central Bureau of Narcotics is responsible for
  • Issuing licenses to farmers to cultivate opium poppy
  • Supervising and controlling the cultivation
  • Procuring the opium produced by the licenced cultivators
• A Deputy Narcotics Commissioner is in-charge of each of the 3 opium growing States Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• The Narcotics Control Bureau, that comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs is also responsible in regulating NDPS.
• Violation – Anyone possessing, selling, purchasing or using it without a license or in violation of any conditions of the license is liable to prosecution under the NDPS Act.
• Control operations - In 2023, record high anti-narcotics operations were undertaken.
  • Under Operation Prahaar in 2023, 10,326 hectares of illicit opium field was destroyed in Arunachal and Manipur.

India is a signatory to the single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the Conventions on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.