How Spain has become a world power and a mecca of drug vampires

The United Nations considers Spain one of the largest producers of opium for medicinal morphine.

With a useful agricultural area of ​​more than 23 million hectares, of which 17 are plantations, Spain is the garden of Europe for many crops. For example, most garlic in the European Union (EU) comes from Castilla-La Mancha and the Spanish countryside is also important in the production of citrus fruits, pistachios or olive oil, for example. However, on the global map, our country stands out (and with great weight) in another much less known business: that of the poppy, or opium poppy. Thousands of well-monitored hectares are devoted to its supply, allowing Spain to stand as one of the great international powers in the legal supply of opium for morphine for medicinal use.

also known as papaver somniferum This has another side effect: it turns Spain into a place of pilgrimage for ‘opium vampires’.

Spain, global potential, This view has been expressed by the United Nations itself. Over the years, reports published by its International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) clearly show Spain’s weight in legal opium production. And at the global level, which goes beyond the European framework. For example, the international organization reported in its 2022 analysis that last year Spain was the largest legal producer of opium for morphine in the world.

To be more precise, INCB technicians calculated that two years ago the equivalent of 100 tons of morphine was produced in Spain, which put it at the top of the world ranking, followed by Australia (96 tons), Turkey (69 tons). Was the place. France (37 tonnes) and India (27 tonnes). “Practically all world production in 2021 was concentrated in these five countries,” supervisory board technicians concluded.

Poppy “Made in Spain”, Not only poppies for the production of morphine come from Spanish fields. The INCB report shows that in 2021, our country, along with Australia, was the only country where poppy rich in codeine was grown. And while tree plantings in the first country were halved, in Spain they almost tripled compared to 2020. The country also appears on the map of the poppy-rich Thebes, although in the scenario of a decline in global production, the area dedicated to its cultivation was significantly reduced.

Regarding raw material reserves of morphine-containing opiates, the United Nations ranked Turkey in first place with 303 tons, followed by Spain in second place. France, Australia and India made the top 5. With Japan, Hungary, the United States and the United Kingdom, the UN agency estimated that 99% of the world stock was brought together.

The last pic”, The 2023 INCB report shows Spain enjoying a dominant role in the world map of legal opiates for morphine. Their technical description states, “Australia and Spain will remain the largest producers of morphine-rich raw materials and the only producers of codeine and oripavine-rich poppies in 2022, while Australia was the only producer of thebaine-rich poppies.” In fact, although the area devoted to poppy seeds from which the alkaloids are extracted decreased overall in 2022, Spain and India saw an increase in the cultivation of morphine-rich plants.

According to JIFE results, at least in 2014, most production came from a handful of countries. Of course Spain is also included. The board’s technicians say, “The main producer of thebaine-rich poppies was Australia, followed in descending order by Spain and France. Cultivation of codeine-rich poppies was reported only by Australia and France.”

But… where is it produced? Opium for medicinal use is no ordinary business. Therefore, whatever revolves around him is not traditional. The crops from which poppy straw is extracted are carefully managed, without disclosing where exactly they are located for security reasons. However, there is an original name in the sector: Alcalibur, which claims to have managed poppy crops for more than 40 years and has “one of the most modern plants in the world” for the production of opiates. , a facility in which alkaloid-rich poppy straw was removed from the fields.

“Alcalibur annually farms more than 6,000 hectares of land papaver somniferum Located in different geographical areas throughout Spain, with the aim of obtaining the maximum yield from the crop”, the company states on its corporate website. The firm has a long history behind it that goes back decades and links it to the Abello saga. 2018 In 2007 it was sold to the British group GHO for an amount that, according to financial sources, was 250 million euros.

white acres, “We are the world leader in the production of morphine and we can be very proud of that,” Alcalibur’s CEO, Jose Antonio de la Puente, said last year. The Mailwhich specifies that the company is the only company that has health authorization in Spain for its cultivation papaver somniferum and production of alkaloids for medical purposes.

To achieve this, it depends on a basic step: crops managed by farmers who dedicate thousands and thousands of hectares to white poppies. The average is about 10,000 hectares per year, although this area can vary from one year to the next due to issues such as guidelines set by the United Nations to ensure a balance between supply and demand of opiates.

well localized production, Most of the fields of white-flowered poppies are located in Castilla-La Mancha, especially in Toledo, Albacete and Ciudad Real; Although they can also be found in other places, such as Castilla y León, La Rioja or the Basque Country. “As long as you harvest at least 2,500 kg of poppies per hectare, they are profitable crops,” he explains. The Mail One of the farmers who devotes about 50 hectares of land to poppy production.

“Opium Vampire”, The exact location of the sleeping gardens is almost a mystery, largely explained by people known as “opium vampires”, or poppy seed, people who dedicate themselves to traveling in search of plants to the areas of Spain where plantations are concentrated. Both those that grow wild, on roadsides and in isolated farms, and those that are cultivated in professional farms such as Alcalibur.

“Vampire” may seem extravagant, but it has its own logic and is based on working style: Small blades are used to cut parts of the poppy plant and extract latex which has a narcotic effect. To do this they would have to avoid surveillance by the Civil Guard and the farmers themselves. For example, in late spring 2023, authorities arrested a young man who was carrying 22 grams of opium collected in a wild plantation, and in 2011 the Civil Guard identified two Italians in the province of Toledo who collected 84 grams of opium. Were successful in doing. Due to which he would have earned approximately 3,400 euros in the black market.

They are not exceptional cases. Years later he hunted down another Portuguese who had 81 grams of opium. The Mail It specifies that in the province of Toledo alone, 80 complaints were filed between 2021 and 2022 for possession or consumption of opiates.

a sad pilgrimage, There are times when pilgrimage is done poppy seed

His end is worse than that of the Civil Guard police station or the courts. There have already been cases in Spain of “opium vampires” who die after consuming the drug. This happened in 2009, when 32-year-old Italian Pasquale died in Albacete, where he was cutting poppy plants in search of latex. Tests revealed that he had opium alkaloids as well as cocaine, cannabis and alcohol in his system. A few years earlier another young man, in this case Irish, had lost his life under similar circumstances in Toledo.

Images | Wikipedia and Manuel MV (Flickr)

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