Heroin

The Papaver somniferum, or Eurasian poppy, was introduced to Asia from the Mediterranean by Arab traders in the 12th century and was cultivated for its medicinal properties. This innocent little flower has now grown up to become the half-brother of war. India, Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Mexico, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan are the troubled homes of this gentle, unassuming weed that blows in the wind. Wars have been fought over opium since the 1839-1842 Opium War between Britain and China. Today, the battles are taking place on the streets of St. Louis, Miami, Los Angeles and small-town America. Crime experts say that as turf battles among druglords decline in the cities, America's small towns are becoming the fastest growing markets. A recent survey found that 47 percent of small town police chiefs consider drugs a serious problem and two-thirds say drug problems in their area have increased over the last five years. Millions of people are currently enslaved by the byproducts of the opium poppy. And heroin's slaves today aren't just junkies in backalleys. The media recently has had a field day exposing heroin addict movie stars and fashion models. Since the drug can now be snorted like cocaine or smoked rather than injected into veins, it has begun increasing in popularity.

Seventy percent of all illicit drugs in the U.S. are derived from heroin, originating in the land of Chinese druglords-the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia. The current purity of heroin found on the street in the United States has jumped from an average 7 percent in 1984 to 36 percent today, a testament not only to its grip on a nation, but to the seemingly endless world supply of the narcotic. Heroin shipped into the U.S. comes from at least 11 different countries. The DEA estimates it stops 30 to 40 percent of drugs illegally entering the country.

Poppies can be grown in cool plateaus above 500 feet. The plants grow rapidly and propagate easily. Planted at the end of the wet season (in Asia in September and October), the poppy heads are later scraped after the petals fall off. The scraping creates an oozing sap that is removed from the plant and packed tightly into banana leaves. The crude opium is then transported out of the hills via pony or armed convoys to middlemen. For those who grow opium, few escape its enticing lure. Hilltribe growers swiftly become addicts themselves. Up to 30 percent of Southeast Asia's Hmong tribe is addicted to opium. Most of the income of northern Laos is dope money. In fact, small nickel bags, or parakeets as they are called locally, can be used as a form of currency.

The poppy is back big time and is often used in conjunction with cocaine to ease the crash. Purer forms can be smoked instead of injected. There are more than half a million heroin addicts in the U.S.

The Golden Triangle has an estimated total potential opium production exceeding 4000 metric tons. While poppy cultivation increased in Myanmar and Laos, it has declined in China and Thailand. Myanmar is the world's largest opium producer, with an estimated 2340 metric tons, which can produce an estimated 234 metric tons of pure heroin, enough to satisfy much of the world's craving for the drug. In 1995, Laos, with an estimated 180 metric tons of potential opium production, edged out Pakistan and became the world's third largest potential producer of illegal opium after Myanmar and Afghanistan.

According to U.S. Government estimates, in 1995, growers in Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand cultivated an estimated 175,470 hectares of opium poppy, potentially yielding 2545 metric tons of opium gum. The fact that Myanmar was responsible for 154,070 hectares, with Laos kicking in a measly 19,650 hectares and Thailand filling in the rest, explodes the Golden Triangle concept. Myanmar is a narco economy just like Colombia and Peru. In fact, estimated opium poppy cultivation in Thailand decreased by approximately 17 percent to 1750 hectares from 2110 hectares.

Laos is the third largest producer of opium, with much of it going to its 42,000 opium addicts who consume 60 metric tons each year. Most poppy cultivation is in the Houaphan and Palavek regions. The smack that doesn't enter the arms of the Lao is smuggled out north to China via Luang Namtha and Phong Saly or to Thailand via Oudomsay province.

China is the other major Asia transportation route for heroin. Heading north from the Golden Triangle, most drugs are shipped from Yunnan through Guangxi and Guangdong provinces into Hong Kong for overseas shipments. A smaller amount is smuggled directly into Russia, and some heroin enters Guangxi province from Vietnam.

China has a minor opium crop primarily in the NW province of Ningxia. There is a conservative government estimate of 380,000 drug addicts in China but the real total is much higher. A six month crackdown just in Guangdong province netted 7500 drug dealers and 250 kgs of heroin. Most addicts are in Yunnan province which also has a skyrocketing AIDS problem due to syringe-needled junkies. Drugs are bad for your health in China. Most drug traffickers are executed by a single pistol shot to the back of the head immediately after trial.

Opium production in China's Yunnan Province is on the decline with a 36 percent drop in production.

Taiwan has more than 60,000 heroin addicts and is a transshipment point for Chinese heroin.

Vietnam has 9000 villages that produce 2300 hectares of opium under cultivation. The country also has more than 200,000 addicts (30,000 in Ho Chi Minh City) three quarters of who smoke opium while the other inject it. There are also about 3000 HIV positive persons, 80 percent of which are drug addicts.

Hong Kong (now part of China) continues to be a major money laundering center, and to a lesser amount, a shipment center.

Indonesia is a minor heroin transit point, primarily for Australia, Europe and the U.S.

Cambodia is a major smuggling center from Myanmar usually via speedboat to Thailand. This new export crop has attracted the attention of the local police and military.

The poppy is regionally cultivated in Third World countries with little or no political, military or police interference. Mexico, Lebanon and Turkey have faded from the scene, replaced by Afghanistan and Myanmar, both of which had bumper crops and governments who see no problem including drug sales to their personal GNP. Vietnam is the up and comer with 3150 hectares of opium poppy under cultivation (which would yield 25 metric tons of opium gum).

Most of Europe's heroin comes straight from Afghanistan via the Balkan routes. Opium and heroin production are up under the taliban, and the transit lines are prospering from affluence in Europe and warfare in Central Asia. The northern branch of the Balkan Route is a heroin highway, servicing markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and other Eastern European countries.

The traditional route for Central Asian heroin has been the Balkans from Turkey to Austria. Increased demand in Europe, and open borders have expanded the route northward into Romania, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak Republics, and southward through Croatia, Slovenia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Albania. Slovakia is becoming a key conduit for smuggling Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe.

Most of the drug trafficking through the Balkan route is under the protection of Kurdish groups like the PKK who have ready made distribution through immigrant networks in the major cities of Germany and the U.K.

Russia has become junkie central with high demand and short supply lines for not only heroin but also amphetamines. Russian authorities predict that drug use is now accelerating at a fifty percent increase per year and there are now over 2 million drug users in Russia. The Lezgi, Chechen and other Transcaucasia mafia groups control the drug trafficking and distribution in Transcaucasia, Central Asia and the Ukraine.

Tajikistan has become one of more lucrative areas for opium and hashish smuggling. A general lack of enforcement and a number of local warlords have made drug smuggling the only industry in Gorno Badakhstan. A kilo of opium can be bought locally between $100 and $120 and can be resold in Moscow 1800 miles away for between $5500-$6000. The presence of 25,000 underpaid Russian military with easy access to air transport to Moscow has made this the main drug highway between Afghanistan and Moscow. The 40,000 or so junkies in Tajikistan can barely get their hands on enough smack before it is whisked out of the country. Curiously, with all this temptation most drug seizures in Tajikistan are still made by Russian border guards who make about $36 a month. There is minor poppy cultivation near Dushanbe, the SE region of Khatlon, in the northern Leninabad region and increasingly in Gorno Badakhstan.

Ukraine has become a major conduit for drug smuggling from Central Asia and Turkey to Europe. It is also home to half a million addicts. The poppy growing regions of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) now are involved heavily in heroin trafficking between Southwest Asia and China into Russia and Europe. Tajikistan is a major opium and hashish thoroughfare between Afghanistan to Russia, the CIS, and Europe.

Kazakhstan is vast area is not only a major transshipment region from Tajikistan and China but is home to a woefully understated 17,000 drug users, 6000 of whom are addicts. It is also a major cannabis growing center (see Cannabis).

Krygyzstan has over 50,000 addicts and is a transit route from Afghanistan via Tajikistan.

Turkmenistan has a well established use of opium in its traditional foods and festivals. It also has a well-worn smuggling trail through the Kushka and to Mary. The Karakum desert provides a direct route from the north of Afghanistan to the Caspian sea and Russia. Most poppy cultivation is along the Iranian border in the Akhal Velayat.

Uzbekistan is used by the Azeria and Georgian mafia as a Central Asian hub to Russia through its main city of Tashkent. There are about 200,000 addicts and minor poppy cultivation in Samarkand and Syrhandarya. It is also a minor transshipment point from Afghanistan to Kazakhstan.

Afghanistan had a 33 percent increase in poppy cultivation in 1995 and continues to expand under the taliban. The taliban is against the consumption of drugs, but not the growing or exporting of drugs. Afghanistan grows most of the poppies and supplies much of the raw paste that becomes Europe's heroin. Poppy cultivation in Pakistan is down. Most transport is via Baluchi trafficking organizations operating out of Quetta, Pakistan. These groups place orders with the Afghani processors and arrange for shipment of the drugs from Afghanistan through Pakistan and to Iranian or Turkish buyers who move it through Iran and into international drug channels. Most Afghan opium is destined for processing into heroin in Turkey to be sold in the main cities of Western Europe.

Turkey is the terminus and major refining center of the Golden Crescent. Three quarters of Europe's heroin supply comes through or from Turkey. That's about 6 metric tons a month. Turkey's raw product comes from Afghanistan and Pakistan through the northern part of Iran. Drug labs are found primarily in the Southeast and in the Mamara region south of Istanbul. Istanbul is one of the world's centers for drug buying and selling. The major player is the PKK who use a network of Kurds as retail outlets to sell heroin in Europe. Turkish heroin goes for $6500 per kilo wholesale and when it gets to Germany or The Netherlands it jumps $35,000. If it gets to North America it can sell for up to $75,000. That's what the dealer pays.

Poppies can be grown anywhere in the world so it's surprising that it has taken this long for traditional coca producers to try opium poppies.

Colombia's attempt at diversifying into opium poppy cultivation is not going well. Colombia's 6540 hectares, assuming three crops per year, make it the largest potential opium producer in the hemisphere. For now they only have 1.5 percent of the world's production. They are trying to use their cocaine distribution and sales networks to sell an ultrapure form of heroin. Many druglords, like the Orejula brothers, run their empires from jail where it's probably safer.

Venezuela, not to be outdone, is busy putting in poppies in the Serrania de Perija frontier region. Mexican drug mafias are strongarming Huallaga Valley campesinos to plant poppies. The DEA claimed that South American heroin had the highest purity (average 59.3 percent) of any samples analyzed under its Domestic Monitor Program.

Mexico remains the second largest Latin American grower of opium poppy with approximately 5800 hectares under cultivation.