EDEN IAS

Menu
opium market

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS | INDIA OPENS OPIUM MARKET TO PRIVATE PLAYERS | 22ND JULY | INDIAN EXPRESS

/ July, 2022, UPSC Daily Current Affairs

SYLLABUS SECTION: GS III (ECONOMY)

WHY IN THE NEWS OPIUM MARKET?

Recently, India has opened up the highly regulated sector of producing and processing opium market to private players.

  • For the first time, central government has allowed a private company, Bajaj Healthcare, to manufacture concentrated poppy straw,
  • (CPS) alkaloids and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from unbalanced poppy capsules.

KEY DETAILS:

OPIUM PRODUCTION:

1) PRE INDEPENDENCE:

  • India has been growing poppy at least since the 15th century, as per historical records.
  • The British East India Company assume monopoly on the cultivation of poppy when the Mughal Empire was on the decline, and the entire trade was brought under government control by 1873.

2) POST INDEPENDENCE:

  • The cultivation and trade of opium pass on to the Indian government, with the activity being control by The Opium Act, 1857, The Opium Act, 1878, and The Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930.
  • At present, the cultivation and processing of poppy and opium is control by the provisions of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Rules

PROCESS OF GROWING AND PROCESSING OPIUM IN INDIA

  • Due to the potential for illicit trade and risk of addiction, the cultivation of opium poppy is strictly regulate in the country, with the crops being allow to be sown only in tracts of land notify by the central government in 22 districts in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
  • The government announces the licensing policy for opium cultivation every year, providing details on minimum qualifying yield, the maximum area that can be cultivate by a single cultivator, and the maximum benefit that is allows to cultivators for damage to the crop due to natural causes.
  • The opium produce in the country is currently process entirely at the Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur and Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch.
  • Products such as morphine, codeine, thebaine, and oxycodone are produce.
 OPIUM USE
  • It is a natural substance obtain from poppy seeds and its derivatives are mainly used for pain management.
  • Alkaloids obtain from opium are use to make cough syrups, cancer medicines and pain-management medicines.
  • Only 12 countries including India allow its cultivation legally for medicinal use.
  • It is used illicitly for smoking, drinking, or eating as pills.

Read more: UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS

Source: INDIAN EXPRESS