Yes, opium is very much still around. It remains a major global crop, both legal and illegal, with tens of thousands of hectares under cultivation worldwide. What has changed is opium’s relative position in the drug landscape. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl have overtaken it in many Western markets, but opium itself continues to be grown, trafficked, consumed, and used in pharmaceutical manufacturing on a massive scale.
Where Opium Is Still Grown Illegally
Myanmar is currently the world’s leading source of illicit opium and heroin. In 2024, the country had an estimated 45,200 hectares of opium poppy under cultivation, only a slight dip from the previous year’s 47,100 hectares. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, production remains near the highest levels recorded in over two decades of monitoring. Shan State, in Myanmar’s northeast, accounts for 88 percent of the country’s total, with cultivation spreading toward borders with Laos, Thailand, and India.
Myanmar’s dominance is partly a result of what happened in Afghanistan. For years, Afghanistan was the world’s largest opium producer by a wide margin. Then, in 2023, the Taliban enforced a ban on poppy cultivation that slashed global opium production by 74 percent almost overnight. That created a supply vacuum. Myanmar’s output, already climbing due to ongoing civil conflict and limited government control over growing regions, filled much of the gap. Farmgate prices for dry opium in Myanmar sat around $304 per kilogram in 2024, down slightly as the market showed early signs of saturation after three years of increased production.
Smaller-scale illicit cultivation also persists in parts of Mexico, Laos, and several other countries, though none approach Myanmar’s current output.
How Synthetic Opioids Changed the Picture
If you’re wondering whether opium still matters in the context of the fentanyl crisis, the answer is complicated. In North America, synthetic opioids have largely displaced heroin (which is derived from opium) as the dominant street opioid. Fentanyl is cheaper to produce, easier to transport, and far more potent, meaning traffickers need to move less physical product for the same profit. It doesn’t require farmland, growing seasons, or harvesting labor.
Afghanistan’s production collapse accelerated this shift. With less heroin flowing into global markets, synthetic alternatives have become more available in regions that previously relied on opium-based drugs. Fentanyl and newer compounds called nitazenes are now showing up mixed into heroin, pressed into counterfeit prescription pills, and even blended into non-opioid drugs like cocaine and MDMA. For drug markets in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe, the synthetic supply chain has made traditional opium less central than it was even a decade ago.
But this displacement is uneven. In much of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, opium and heroin remain the primary opioids in circulation. The Golden Triangle region (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand) still feeds heroin supply chains across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Legal Opium Production for Medicine
Opium also exists as a fully legal, regulated industry. India, Turkey, and Australia are the primary countries licensed to grow opium poppies for pharmaceutical use. Together, these operations produce roughly 2,000 tons of opium annually, supplying the raw material for morphine, codeine, and other prescription painkillers used in hospitals worldwide.
This legal cultivation operates under strict international oversight. Opium and most of its derivatives are classified as Schedule II controlled substances in the U.S., meaning they have recognized medical value but significant potential for misuse. Licensed pharmaceutical companies process and ship poppy-derived products through tightly controlled supply chains. So when you receive morphine during surgery or take a codeine-based cough suppressant, the active ingredient traces back to a poppy field that was planted, harvested, and monitored under government regulation.
Places Where People Still Use Raw Opium
In several parts of the world, raw opium use is not a relic of the past. It’s an ongoing, everyday reality. Iran has one of the highest rates of opium consumption on the planet. Among Iranians aged 15 to 64, roughly 4.4 percent reported using raw opium in the past year, and 1.2 percent used it daily. Both traditional raw opium (called “teriak”) and a minimally refined version (“shireh”) remain widely available across age groups, income levels, and regions.
In rural India, raw opium is still consumed in a traditional preparation: a small nugget dissolved in water, filtered, and drunk. Studies of opioid-dependent patients in Indian states have found that between 27 and 33 percent were using opium specifically, rather than heroin or pharmaceutical opioids. This kind of use is deeply embedded in certain communities, where opium has served social and quasi-medicinal functions for generations.
Parts of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East also have populations where opium smoking or eating persists, often in rural or conflict-affected areas where it may be more accessible than other substances or even conventional medicine.
Why Opium Isn’t Going Away
Several factors keep opium entrenched. In Myanmar, ongoing armed conflict means large areas of the country operate outside central government control, making poppy cultivation difficult to suppress. The UN has flagged “significant risk of further expansion” in the coming years as global supply chains adjust to Afghanistan’s exit from the market. In regions with traditional use, decades of cultural integration make consumption patterns resistant to change.
Even the rise of synthetics hasn’t eliminated demand. Heroin users in many markets still prefer the drug’s particular effects over fentanyl’s shorter, more intense high. And the pharmaceutical industry’s need for natural opium alkaloids ensures legal cultivation will continue indefinitely, since fully synthetic alternatives haven’t replaced plant-derived compounds for all medical applications.
Opium’s role has shifted, and in some markets it has genuinely lost ground to lab-made alternatives. But the plant, the trade, and the consumption are all very much still here.