"Mark Fawcett" wrote in message
om...
"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...
snip I have always wondered what it is that makes one particular
species of
poppy
produce that very expensive resin. Has anybody experimented with any
of
the
common or garden species/varieties to find out if they might actually
be
worth their weight in gold?

P nudicaule 'contains some opium ...used locally to relieve pain'
(Usher: A Dictionary of plants used by man)

I imagine some of the others do too, but maybe in lesser amounts/not
so
easily extractable?

But there again - why do we drink Camellia sinensis, but not C
japonica
or C drupifera?

If, as you say, P. nudicaule contains some opium, which of us is boing
to
have a look to see if it is there in commercially viable quantities?

Franz

Some 25 yrs ago I new a bunch of people who would regularily collect
the seed heads, put them into a teapot and pour boiling water over
them. They would drink the resulting concoction and get extremly
stoned and then sleep for a long time. They kept on doing it so I
presume it was enjoyable enough.
As to whether it could be commercially viable, I would think that the
cost of paying people even a minimum wage in this country to cut the
seed heads and then collect the dried resin would make it unlikly you
could compete with pay rates in Afganistan.

My understanding of the trade is that the poppy farmers get very little and
that the price is hoiked by the various middlemen through which the product
goes.

Unless of course you could
mechanise it in which case Franz, you could become the Opium drug lord
of Yorkshire !-)

Franz