The Tradition of Opium Cultivation in Rajasthan

India is the world's largest producer of legal opium for medicinal use for the pharmaceutical industry. My district Udaipur is one of the six districts in Rajasthan where opium crop is cultivated.

However, opium cultivation is now decreasing rapidly as farmers are switching to other crops now. Opium production is strictly monitored by the Central Bureau of Narcotics and selling it in open market is not allowed. Farmers used to sell the poppy husk, a leftover of the main opium crop which sells for INR 250 to INR 2500 depending on the quality of the produce.

Central government banned the consumption of poppy husk in 2016 and recently put up a ban even on the possession of husk. This resulted in a steep fall in the main income of the farmers and growing opium is no more profitable.

Yesterday, I was at a heritage property and found this traditional opium filtration unit. So just clicked a few pictures of it.

Heroine is produced through chemically processing the morphine found in opium latex. Opium is also popularly known as "black gold" and is extremely bitter in taste. I've watched the expression of the people who consume this substance and those expressions never motivated me to ever try this! After putting it in mouth they would sip a very sweetened tea to overcome its bitter taste.

However, on a different note yesterday I did buy some locally grown weed for a friend and took a couple of puffs to get the feel. I wanted to write about it on the newly formed first Scotbot powered community on Steem called Weedcash.

Although I ain't much interested in WEED tokens, I'd like to try posting on this new Stem Engine powered website to see how it goes.

So I'll try to continue this subject there. I think the post will be visible on STEEM too.