Heroin

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plant. This flower is grown chiefly by impoverished farmers in remote regions of the world. The opium poppy flourishes in the dry, warm climates of countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, Laos and Colombia. After three months, the flower’s petals fall away, exposing an egg-shaped seed pod. The opaque, milky sap is extracted from the seed pod by slitting it vertically in parallel cuts with a special curved knife. When the sap oozes out, it forms a thick, brownish-black gum which is then bundled into bricks, cakes or balls and wrapped in plastic or leaves. From here, the opium goes back into the black market where it’s bought by merchants or brokers for transport to a morphine refinery, which are usually little more than a small neglected laboratory hidden in a jungle thicket. The opium is mixed with lime in boiling water until a white band of morphine is formed on the surface of the mixture. This is then reheated with ammonia, filtered and boiled again until it is reduced to a brown ...

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