the opium was harvested, the plants were allowed to mature and harvested for poppy seeds. The sale of poppy seeds delivered a significant proportion of the income from the licit opium crop. Unknown fractions of both the opium harvest and poppy straw residue of the poppy seed harvest were diverted to illicit uses. The production of illegal opium from poppy straw is limited. It is reported primarily in clandestine laboratories in Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine, using domestic poppy straw. Derived products A common method of producing laudanum involves dissolving the PSC or latex-derived opium in alcohol and either being allowed to sit for up to a week and periodically agitated, using fresh alcohol to do multiple washes, or refluxing. The original patents for laudanum in various countries refer to soaking poppy straw in varying levels of pulverisation in plain water for a week then evaporating the water to obtain the gummy or powdery brown concentrate. Recreational use Poppy tea and its variants can be said to be an incomplete and/or relatively crude form of PSC aqueous solution. Home-made poppy straw extracts including Kompot are widely used among IV drug users in eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Poland. Tracing of illicit drugs Poppy straw is a raw material from which illegal heroin may be produced. The alkaloid profiles of poppy straw and opium are similar, but preliminary research suggests they can be distinguished by relative quantities of alkaloids. Based on the presence of the alkaloid oripavine in some opium poppies, it has been suggested that illegal heroin seized in Australia was produced from a legal poppy straw crop stolen in Tasmania a few years earlier. References External links Opium production in India Natural opium alkaloids Non-food crops Papaver