opium

Wearing a straw hat, a polo shirt and jeans, Jorge slices the bulbs with a razor blade, releasing a sticky paste -- the raw material of a growing heroin epidemic feeding addicts in the United States and fueling violence in Mexico.

With the wholesale price of marijuana falling – driven in part by decriminalization in sections of the U.S. – Mexican drug farmers are turning away from cannabis and filling their fields with opium poppies.

MEXICO CITY – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the man who supplied more illegal drugs to the United States than anyone else on Earth, was captured by the Mexican military without a shot Saturday morning in the Pacific coast town resort of Mazatlán, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities.

In its latest progress report on Afghanistan to the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon warned that the 2013 poppy harvest was expected to be "considerably" bigger than the 2012 yield as a result of warmer temperatures early in the season, the drawdown of NATO troops and the high price of poppies.

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan security forces exceeded original expectations for the anti-drug operation they launched Aug. 28 in five municipalities on the Mexican border,...