In the 1960s when the Americans began to invade Southeast Asia in substantial numbers, the value of the trade crescendos sharply, and American military men became integrally involved in its transport. The American Central Intelligence Agency provided valuable conduits for the transportation in competition with the drug overlords and a certain amount of friction developed. The communists not only shared in the profits, but they made it easy for the Americans to pollute themselves as one more weapon in the hands of the weaker, but more determined nations. Even as the Thai government took steps to interdict the farming, trade, and traffic in opium in its country, the LPRP [Laotion People’s Revolutionary Party], the new rulers of Lao, took strong steps to increase its production, refineries, and market share.

Southeast Asia Heroin Trade

Thailand was mainly a country of conduit for the massive amounts of opium produced in Southeast Asia. Burma produced some 500-600 tons in an average year, and as much as 3000-4000 tons in bumper crop years, Laos about 200 tons, and Thailand about 60 tons. The farmers who grew the poppies and did the backbreaking work f harvesting the latex received less than a thousandth part of the billions of dollars the traffic eventually generated. A farmer was lucky to get $2000 a kilo for his backbreaking work. The vast majority of the heroin traffic moved from the Golden Triangle to Bangkok.

Burma Heroin Trade

Until 1962, Burma was the world’s largest exporter of rice, shipping two million tons annually. But after General Win seized power in that year, closed all borders, nationalized all industry, imprisoned all intellectuals and government executives, halted all developmental activities of the World Bank, forced all Indians and Chinese to flee the country, and drove out all foreign business – her economy failed.

The rice export fell to 170,000 tons; and civil warring among the seventy fractious ethnic groups made anything but opium production unprofitable for the majority of the peasantry. More than one-third of the gross national product became accounted for by smuggling, a natural response to the needs of the impoverished populace. To people whose average annual income did not exceed $179, the niceties of how one made a living were relegated to a low place on the list of concerns. The Burmese became rice importers and sophisticated drug refiners, transporters, marketers and exporters.

The SUN, or Shan People, maintained a 20,000 man army and concentrated their activities on the running and protection of refineries that turned out heroin by the ton. Together with the UWS, they owned and controlled more than 75% of all the heroin produced in the area, and they were the largest supplier [70%] of the insatiable American market. They were responsible for 50% of the entire world’s supply. The Shan people jealously guarded that status. Their $4-10 billion yearly trade afforded them ample profit to maintain a more than adequate security establishment and to deter any government that might foolishly try to rein them in. It also allowed them to participate in the hugely profitable and perfectly legitimate business of mining rubies and sapphires, the only other product worthy of mention in Burma.

Acetic Anhydride

Acetic anhydride: the chemical use to convert opium to heroin, shipped in military holds that were as untouchable as the diplomatic pouch. The bags were discretely labeled and handled. The chemical was transported in flour sacks marked with the large lettered logo C.A.R.E., and accompanied by a statement “Gift of the Generous American People.” In the course of their business arrangement, the generous American people shipped in thousands of pounds of the valuable chemical which was then transported by US Army trucks over GVN highways without VC attack and transshipped across the borders of Viet Nam, Laos, and Burma without Pathet Lao, police or customs agent impediment. A considerable amount of money changed hands; large profits were realized; and triumph of international relations of sorts resulted when a common language and purpose [money] was involved.

Afghanistan Opium at Record High

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6965115.stm

27 August 2007

The UN says opium production in Afghanistan has soared to record levels, with an increase on last year of more than a third. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says the amount of opium produced there has doubled in the last two years. Afghanistan now accounts for more than 93% of the world's opiates.

UN Report: Afghan Opium Production Rises

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/26/international/i002328D82.DTL&hw=opium&sn=001&sc=1000

June 26, 2007

Afghanistan produced dramatically more opium in 2006, increasing its yield by nearly 50 percent from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a new record high, the report found. Opium production in Afghanistan increased from about 4,500 tons in 2005 to 6,700 tons in 2006, according to the report. Opium is the main ingredient for heroin.

In 2006, Afghanistan accounted for 92 percent of global illicit opium production, up from 70 percent in 2000 and 52 percent a decade earlier. The higher yields in Afghanistan brought global opium production to a record high of nearly 7,300 tons last year, a 43 percent increase over 2005. The area under opium poppy cultivation in the country has also expanded, from nearly 257,000 acres in 2005 to more than 407,000 acres in 2006 — an increase of about 59 percent.

"This is the largest area under opium poppy cultivation ever recorded in Afghanistan," the report said, noting that two-thirds of cultivation was concentrated in the country's south.