The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) grows under a wide variety of climatic conditions, though it seems to prefer a warm, dry climate. Its growth is presently illegal in the United States, as in most other countries, and its cultivation, where legal, is limited by a network of international agreements. Legally or not, however, the plant is grown on a large scale in several areas of the world. In India the plant is grown lawfully as a cash crop for the medical drugs that may be obtained from it and, so far as we know, diversion to other illegal uses is not common. In central Turkey opium has been cultivated for centuries and is the basis of the local cuisine. Its leaves are eaten in salad and the oil from its seeds, like the olive oil in Spanish cuisine, is an important ingredient in traditional cookery. The plant is also an important cash crop, with the government, in theory, buying up the entire production of opium for medical uses. But here-as in other areas where there is a shortage of police resources, a cultural tradition of opium growing, and a large supply of cheap rural labor-the illegal market flourishes. The monetary return from the Turkish illegal market is enough to make diversion to illegal uses a serious problem.' This diversion has been so serious that the United States Government for 2 years expended a considerable amount of resources to persuade the Turkish government to ban growth of the plant altogether.2 In areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan,' and the "Golden Triangle" of Laos, Burma, and Thailand-areas effectively outside the power of any of those embattled governments-the poppy is grown entirely for the illegal market.