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Opium, hair win. a drug ravaging communities across america. clearly this is a powerful plant. something the turks figured out a while back. hundreds of years ago opium was a go-to remedy prescribed by doctors and it wasn't long before it was abused in turkey's cities. but a lot of the rural areas including the opium growing hub of afyon were spared the ravages of addiction. how do they do it? a turkish scholar might have some answers. i think if you had a town named opium in the states, people would be suspicious. >> people are proud of the name itself and what it stands for here. >> spice ma...

That. the culture is so influenced by religion that islam shapes people's perception. >> turkey is predominantly muslim and the koran prohibits the use of mind altering substances. but for generations opium was unregulated here. until america declared the war on drugs in the 70s. >> america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse. >> nixon pressured turkey to stop growing opium because it was flooding the united states in the form of illegal heroin, but for farmers here in afyon this crop was their life blood. they fought back and got the ban overturned with a catch. every...

Something growing we've come to depend on. typically if you're feeling some pain, you pop a pill. right? and some of the world's most powerful painkillers are known as oipiates and they start froma rather unique crop from this province that literally means opium, afyon. that opium comes from the poppy plant which is hauled in by the ton here. the largest legal opium processer in the world. this is one of the top executives here. so this is what all the fuss is about. >> poppy. how many trucks like this come every day?

To a cheaper derivative of opium, hair win. heroin. a drug ravaging communities across america. clearly this is a powerful plant. something the turks figured out a while back. hundreds of years ago opium was a go-to remedy prescribed by doctors and it wasn't long before it was abused in turkey's cities. but a lot of the rural areas including the opium growing hub of afyon were spared the ravages of addiction. how do they do it? a turkish scholar might have some answers. i think if you had a town named opium in the states, people would be suspicious. >> people are proud of the name itself and w...