Of course, the flower did not act alone: British colonialists and American merchants conspired to wreak havoc alongside it. Still, Ghosh’s impressive history of the opium industry is an attempt ...

The climate of these parts of Asia seems peculiarly adapted to the growth of the species of poppy (papaver somniferum), from which opium is obtained ; accumulating in the juice of the plant the ...

He explained that one poppy flower produces 20-25 grams of opium, but "a large group of parrots feeds on these plants around 30-40 times a day and some even fly away with poppy pods". "Nobody is ...