THIEVES HIT OPIUM CROP IN TASMANIA

Tasmania's unique legal opium poppy industry has been hit by the theft of
about 50,000 of the plant's heads from one farm, just as a bumper crop
ripens.

The closely regulated crop is grown for pharmaceuticals and this season
covered about 16,000 hectares. Worth up to $6000 a hectare, it can bring
rich returns to the 1000 farmers in the trade

Theft is usually confined to minor pilfering and normally amounts to a few
thousand poppy heads a season.

But recently a farm in the island's south lost an estimated 50,000 poppy
heads, the manager of the Tasmanian Poppy Advisory and Control Board, Mr
Terry Stuart, said yesterday.

"This was quite unusual," Mr Stuart said. "Most of the interference we get
is in small numbers, but someone has been obviously pretty keen to ferret
some away for winter."

Police who operate a poppy taskforce over the summer growing period declined
to comment.

A grower representative, Mr Wayne Smith, also refused to speak. "The last
thing that we want at this point is two or three carloads (of thieves)
coming in from the mainland," Mr Smith said.

But Mr Stuart said a sizeable theft was something poppy growers had to deal
with occasionally. "We have a pretty good record for security in Tasmania.
That's why an incident like this is alarming."

Precautions against theft include fencing, prominent warning signs, grower
vigilance and a mobile police squad.

The crop is estimated to be worth about $160 million to the lacklustre
Tasmanian economy. It is Australia's only legal opium poppy industry and one
of a handful world-wide that provide extracts for pharmaceuticals.

The existence of this crop is one reason Tasmania argued strongly against
the 1996 proposal for a legal heroin trial in the Australian Capital
Territory. Such a concession to the philosophy of harm minimisation was seen
by the Tasmanian industry as endangering relations with the United States.

Attempts to expand production are linked to the big US market, which
Tasmanians have been trying to crack for at least a decade.

A Department of Primary Industry study is reported to have found Tasmania
had the potential to grow another 65,000 hectares of poppies, but farmers
have been barred because of Washington's 80-20 rule, which demands that 80
per cent of US imports come from Turkey and India in an attempt to control
illicit trade. Only 20 per cent can come from the rest of the world.