"Almost half14 of global opium is legally produced for processing into various opiate based medicines. Any country can formally apply to the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs to cultivate, produce and trade in licit opium, under the auspices of the UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs 1961 and under the supervision and guidance of the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB). As of 2001 there were eighteen countries that do, including Australia, Turkey, India, China and the UK."
Source
Transform Drug Policy Foundation, "After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation," (Bristol, United Kingdom: September 2009), p. 32.
http://www.tdpf.org.uk/resour…
