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Subject: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/histor y.html

Early 1940's


During World War II, opium trade routes are blocked and the flow of opium
from India and Persia is cut off. Fearful of losing their opium monopoly,
the French encourage Hmong farmers to expand their opium production.

1945-1947


Burma gains its independence from Britain at the end of World War II. Opium
cultivation and trade flourishes in the Shan states.

1948-1972


Corsican gangsters dominate the U.S. heroin market through their connection
with Mafia drug distributors. After refining the raw Turkish opium in
Marseille laboratories, the heroin is made easily available for purchase by
junkies on New York City streets.

1950's


U.S. efforts to contain the spread of Communism in Asia involves forging
alliances with tribes and warlords inhabiting the areas of the Golden
Triangle, (an expanse covering Laos, Thailand and Burma), thus providing
accessibility and protection along the southeast border of China. In order
to maintain their relationship with the warlords while continuing to fund
the struggle against communism, the U.S. and France supply the drug
warlords and their armies with ammunition, arms and air transport for the
production and sale of opium. The result: an explosion in the availability
and illegal flow of heroin into the United States and into the hands of
drug dealers and addicts. 1962


Burma outlaws opium. 1965-1970


U.S. involvement in Vietnam is blamed for the surge in illegal heroin being
smuggled into the States. To aid U.S. allies, the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) sets up a charter airline, Air America, to transport raw opium
from Burma and Laos. As well, some of the opium would be transported to
Marseille by Corsican gangsters to be refined into heroin and shipped to
the U.S via the French connection. The number of heroin addicts in the U.S.
reaches an estimated 750,000.

October 1970


Legendary singer, Janis Joplin, is found dead at Hollywood's Landmark
Hotel, a victim of an "accidental heroin overdose."

1972


Heroin exportation from Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, controlled by
Shan warlord, Khun Sa,becomes a major source for raw opium in the
profitable drug trade.

July 1, 1973


President Nixon creates the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) under the
Justice Dept. to consolidate virtually all federal powers of drug
enforcement in a single agency.

Mid-1970's


Saigon falls. The heroin epidemic subsides. The search for a new source of
raw opium yields Mexico's Sierra Madre. "Mexican Mud" would temporarily
replace "China White" heroin until 1978.

1978


The U.S. and Mexican governments find a means to eliminate the source of
raw opium--by spraying poppy fields with Agent Orange. The eradication plan
is termed a success as the amount of "Mexican Mud" in the U.S. drug market
declines. In response to the decrease in availability of "Mexican Mud",
another source of heroin is found in the Golden Crescent area--Iran,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating a dramatic upsurge in the production and
trade of illegal heroin.

1982

Comedian John Belushi of Animal House fame, dies of a
heroin-cocaine--"speedball" overdose.

Sept. 13, 1984

U.S. State Department officials conclude, after more than a decade of crop
substitution programs for Third World growers of marijuana, coca or opium
poppies, that the tactic cannot work without eradication of the plants and
criminal enforcement. Poor results are reported from eradicationprograms in
Burma, Pakistan, Mexico and Peru.

1988

Opium production in Burma increases under the rule of the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the Burmese junta regime.

The single largest heroin seizure is made in Bangkok. The U.S. suspects
that the 2,400-pound shipment of heroin, en route to New York City,
originated from the Golden Triangle region, controlled by drug warlord,
Khun Sa.

1990

A U.S. Court indicts Khun Sa, leader of the Shan United Army and reputed
drug warlord, on heroin trafficking charges. The U.S. Attorney General's
office charges Khun Sa with importing 3,500 pounds of heroin into New York
City over the course of eighteen months, as well as holding him responsible
for the source of the heroin seized in Bangkok.

1992

Colombia's drug lords are said to be introducing a high-grade form of
heroin into the United States.

1993


The Thai army with support from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
launches its operation to destroy thousands of acres of opium poppies from
the fields of the Golden Triangle region.

October 31, 1993

Heroin takes another well-known victim. Twenty-three-year-old actor River
Phoenix dies of a heroin-cocaine overdose, the same "speedball" combination
that killed comedian John Belushi.

January 1994

Efforts to eradicate opium at its source remains unsuccessful. The Clinton
Administration orders a shift in policy away from the anti- drug campaigns
of previous administrations. Instead the focus includes "institution
building" with the hope that by "strengthening democratic governments
abroad, [it] will foster law-abiding behavior and promote legitimate
economic opportunity." April 1994

Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the Seattle-based alternative rock band,
Nirvana, dies of heroin-related suicide.

1995

The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia is now the leader in opium
production, yielding 2,500 tons annually. According to U.S. drug experts,
there are new drug trafficking routes from Burma through Laos, to southern
China, Cambodia and Vietnam.

January 1996


Khun Sa, one of Shan state's most powerful drug warlords, "surrenders" to
SLORC. The U.S. is suspicious and fears that this agreement between the
ruling junta regime and Khun Sa includes a deal allowing "the opium king"
to retain control of his opium trade but in exchange end his 30-year-old
revolutionary war against the government.

November 1996

International drug trafficking organizations, including China, Nigeria,
Colombia and Mexico are said to be "aggressively marketing heroin in the
United States and Europe."

References Booth, Martin. Opium: A History. London: Simon & Schuster, Ltd.,
1996.

Latimer, Dean, and Jeff Goldberg with an Introduction by William Burroughs.
Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium. New York: Franklin Watts, 1981

McCoy, Alfred W. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug
Trade. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991.

Musto, David F. The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

---------+------------------------+-------------
Ali Ahmed

aliburma@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.nayzak.com/~aliburma