What a pity, if saffron was able to be practically & economically used for chemical extraction for morphine substitutes. It will end up on various banned substance lists around the world.. Here in Australia we have some of the strictest rules in the world : ( It would be banned here for sure or regulated & we would see a pretty home garden species that couldn't be used for this purpose because quantities are so low you would never extract enough at home & possibly some of its family will end up banned in home gardens too.. Recently a number of species were listed here, some prohibited like peyotes cacti, some wattle the Aboriginies used for 60,000 years to enter the dream time or ?, & some strictly regulated with poison labelling like brugsmansia.. These were banned for a while but grower & nursery protest helped a compromise & the labelling was I enforced instead of a blanket ban.. Anything able to be used as a commercial or home drug is listed here with the same enforcement penalties as illicit drugs .... I would hate to see saffron disappear from our gardens, if it does im sure many others will follow as various chemical properties are tapped over time... Im fingers crossed the project fails, the world has more than enough morphine to out weigh our hospital needs world wide.. Steven On 14 November 2013 06:59, Judy Glattstein <jgglatt@gmail.com> wrote: > A BBC World report, about efforts to encouraging the cultivation of > saffron instead of the massive amounts of opium poppies. > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24928454/ > > A brief 3 minute video that begins with the saffron, then segues into > the opium business. > > ___________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > -- > Steven : ) Esk Queensland Australia Summer Zone 5 Winter Zone 10