Medicinal plants

Greece on Monday issued the first licences to private companies for growing medicinal cannabis in the country, part of an attempt to tap a burgeoning market worth billions.

The Bulgarian authorities have shut down a high-tech illegal cannabis production facility and arrested two suspects, the Interior Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

Every autumn, Zisis Kyrou is more often found plucking flowers in northern Greece's purple saffron fields than in his office as a civil engineer.

Saffron - the spice so expensive it's called "red gold" - has brought jobs and money to a region better known for coal mines and unemployment. A year ago, its producers began exporting to the United States. Now they're looking to China.

Police in Pomorie found a drug factory with a record amount of cannabis. 

The drug was raised with expensive equipment in a specially adapted room in a house. Policemen encounter nearly 200 pots of marijuana, of which about 40 kg of marijuana was seized. Part of the cannabis was ready for placement. 

Researchers at the University of York and the British Museum have discovered traces of opiates preserved inside a vessel from Cyprus dating back to the Late Bronze Age.

Sofia. Over 58 tonnes of cannabis have been seized since the start of this crop season, Deputy Minister of Interior Milko Berner said during the Ministry's regular monthly briefing, Focus News Agency reports. He said 20 tonnes had been found in a single night.

Police have seized a total of 243 cannabis plants on a pepper farm in the Ödemiş district of the western province of İzmir.

Borgen Magazine, SEATTLE — Demand for lavender herb is increasing each year in Europe, North America, Japan and China as the popularity of natural products and healthcare grows, and Bulgaria is one of the world's top producers and exporters. This growing industry is fighting poverty in Bulgaria through earned income and creating jobs, not only in farming and production, but also in tourism.

Pazardzhik. Law enforcement officers from the regional directorate have seized cannabis plants grown on private property, said the Ministry of the Interior. A police raid that took place yesterday found 35 cannabis plants of one to two metres in height growing in the garden of an unoccupied house in the village of Sinitevo, Pazardjik municipality.

The Turkish gendarmerie has seized 800 kilograms of skunk weed, a form of cannabis, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing gendarmerie sources.