Legal opium production in India
Legal cultivation of opium for medicinal purposes is carried out in India, only in selected areas, under free licensing conditions. India is the world's largest manufacturer of legal opium for the pharmaceutical industry according to the CIA World Factbook. India is one among 12 countries in world where legal cultivation for medical use is permissible within the ambit of United Nations, Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961. In India legal cultivation is done primarily in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Despite producing poppy for opium production India depends heavily on imports to meet need of Poppy seed for edible purposes and domestic Codeine demand for medical purposes (more than 30% by imports). Opium is heavily imported from its top producing nations like Afghanistan. There is also an account of Opium black marketing in India. Background The cultivation of poppy in India for Opium production has occurred since as early as 1000CE, and certainly from the early 16th Century. It constituted 15% of revenue of British Raj from Colonial India. The legalized cultivation and management of produce under strict government control continued in India even post independence. Opium poppy (Papaver somniferous) plant is the source of opium gum which contains