BikeBaaZ's video: Reality of Opium Factory of Ghazipur

Ghazipur opium factory, India’s biggest and oldest legal opium factory with premises covering 45 acre of land and sprawling over two adjoining compounds. Set up in 1820, it was in the Ghazipur factory that the processing of opium began in India. Later, an alkaloid plant was set up here in 1943 during World War-II. The other plant for processing opium and to manufacture alkaloids is in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh. The Alkaloid Works at Ghazipur and Neemuch process raw opium for manufacture of alkaloid drugs like narcotine, thebaine, papaverine and codeine phosphate. Morphine salts and codeine phosphate are the main products supplied by the factories to Indian pharmaceutical industry . According to the records of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the direction to shut the factory was issued on February 10. Earlier, a show-cause notice was issued on July 27, 2015, for installation of an online effluent monitoring device. .    Since the EIC needed gold in their export dealing, they wanted to export something that would improve their gold reserve and get good mark-up. The choice fell on opium production and their target was China where people were  already using opium as a sign of status. In 1757 the monopoly of Poppy cultivation had passed into the hands of East India Company and the Company later started its trade in Opium, Indigo, Kewra and Floriculture, especially Roses. Once the British saw bright prospect of making a bundle in this unsavory opium trade, they started sending Opium to Calcutta port by river transportation from Ghazipur and from there it was exported to China. Later they began to dump opium in the harbors of China against the wish of Chinese rulers  and this later culminated in opium wars.  Literally Britain decimated China with enormous quantity  of opium produced from Ghazipur. Believe it or not, this dirty  trade yielded the British Company about two millions  pounds yearly which eventually financed the British Raj in India. 01. The opium factory located in the town of Ghazipur, Utter Pradesh, during the colonial period, was the  first one in India and was the main source of opium production in India.  03. It is believed to be the largest legitimate opium  factory in the country and  world. The Ghazipur factory began life as the Benaras Opium Agency, an entity of the East India Company, in 1820. Later the factory was in operation by the British during the First and Second Opium Wars with China. 4. Though the  factory came up  in 1820 the British had been in opium trading in this area before. The opium processed at Ghazipur was sent to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) for auction, then shipped to the south China coast and smuggled into the country via the port of Canton (now known as Guangzhou.  . The historical old factory  was a major producer of raw opium extracts from poppies till 1943. The factory also produces  nowadays many alkaloids,  whose production  first began  during  WWII.  During the Second World War when the soldiers needed life-saving drugs like morphine, an Alkaloid factory became a necessity. 09. The factory  is functioning over a land covering 43 acres and much of its buildings date back to colonial days.    12. In the factory's vicinity, there  is a temple  dedicated to Baba Shyam, besides a Mazar, both  of them have been there long before the factory. Of interest to the visitors is the presence of a solar clock, installed by the British opium agent Hopkins Esor from 1911 to 1913. 15. The factory which has a total work force of about 900 , is a major and important contributor to the global pharmaceutical industry related to preparation of  certain psychedelic  medicine.  17. Though the cultivation of Opium poppy (Papaver Somnigerum) has come down drastically in   Uttar Pradesh but it still cultivated  by farmers of Rajasthan  (Kota and Bhilwara) and Madhya Pradesh 18. The Ghazipur factory produced three  kinds of Opium : The Provision Opium, the Excise Opium and Medical Opium. Now, they make one more kind, based on its  purity value. 21. The problem of junkie monkeys has not yet been properly addressed. Junkie monkeys have been here for generations and are part and parcel of the factory. They savour poppy stuff kept for drying in the yard.  According to the factory manager  'The addiction is passed on from parent to child and they can't leave the area because they need the opium.' The elderly monkeys are too lethargic to look for food because they are often found sedated and emaciated. 22. In the recent past the country's biggest and oldest opium factory was shut down for over a month for failing to comply with effluent discharge standards  and directions to install an online effluent and emission monitoring system. Though it is temporary, for the first time, the machines stopped working in this factory.