DOZENS of Hampshire fields are being used to grow the raw materials for heroin, the govern-ment has revealed.

County farmers have been paid for the past seven years to cultivate increasing amounts of opium poppies for medicinal use.

The poppies, from which the illegal Class A drug heroin is derived, are being used to produce legal morphine, which is used by the NHS to relieve pain.

Home Office figures show Hampshire is the UK's capital for opium production, with the county's crop in 2007 almost as large as the rest of the UK's put together.

The figures, published by Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker, show county farmers grew 1,238 hectares of poppies across 26 sites last year.

By comparison, the second biggest crop, in Lincolnshire, was 445 hectares insize. Anyone can grow opium poppies because the process is not controlled by the Misuse of Drugs legislation, but any processing of the plant to extract narcotic material is controlled and can only be carried out under licence.

Every farmer growing poppies in the UK is contracted by Edinburgh-based pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith, the UK's only manufacturer of narcotic materials.

The company, which took the decision to cultivate the crop in 2001 to maintain a stock of raw material, had previously been dependent upon imports of raw material, which made it vulnerable to market fluctuations and varying harvests. Since then, the amount grown in the UK has increased significantly, from just 21 hectares in 2001 to 774 in 2006 and 2,744 last year.

A Home Office spokeswoman refused to disclose the location of Hampshire's opium crops but suggested that the police would have been informed.

She said: "Although we do not licence growers, we do issue them with a letter confirming that we are aware that growing is taking place at their farm and detailing the locations. We advise each grower to produce a copy of this letter to their local police station in order that they may be aware of what is taking place."

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, said: "There's no need to worry about this, provided it remains under strict control. As far as I understand people are not growing these crops on spec and trying to sell them off.

"Opiates, under the right processing arrangements, are a very important part of the medical arsenal. But while opium can be the base for life saving drugs it can also be the base for drugs that can kill you. It's clearly important that proper controls are exercised."