Heroin Achieves Full Market Potential: Globalizing Generations of Junkies

Figure 1: Soldier Guarding Poppy Plants: Prevent Early H Harvest Heroin Achieves Full Market Potential: Globalizing Generations of Junkies Georgette Escobar Dr. Andy Hernandez Drug Wars Spring 2014 Western New Mexico University

HEROIN ACHIEVES FULL MARKET POTENTIAL: GLOBAL GENERATIONS OF JUNKIES When a diplomat says yes he must means perhaps, when he says perhaps he means no; when he says no he is no diplomat. --Anonymous 1 Introduction This essay focuses on the first six chapters of Alfred McCoy s book entitled The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. It examines the prevalence and market for illicit narcotics, and considers its historic evolution. It will also discuss the conflicts that influenced its rise to power, proneness to monopolies, and the international political dimensions where conflicts help its spread exponentially with an ever-increasing number of users equaling generation after generations of addicts. Most of the conflicts in which the U.S. has participated in such as Viet Nam, the Gulf wars in the Middle East and the current U.S. occupation of Afghanistan have created strange bed fellows and redistributed power and wealth internationally through global politics trying to control the economy, including that of narcotics. The costs of war have been severe. Often to recoup money needed to rebuild war torn nations, countries get involved at the head of state level in the opium industry. The crime syndicates now have control over the monopoly thanks to the American government and the CIA who remain allies with crime syndicates. They are likely to repeat past successes in black operations in the future to maintain power and control over the market. However, even today, the competition is brutal, everyone wants to wield the influence, power and wealth the opium poppy can bring. East India Trading Company According to Fay (1997), one of the first monopolies over the opium trade existed in a British colony in India that entered this business market in 1773 selling 75 tons of opium to the Chinese. Parliament held the East India Trading Company which continued to monopolize the opium markets in the far east for the next hundred and thirty years. The East India Company had continued to expand business over the years to where it was supplying over two thousand fifty 1 Webster s Book of Quotations (1992) New York, NY: Pamco Publishing p. 72

five tons in 1820. In 1834, the E. India Co. lost its charter. Apparently, all due to the ludicrous profits envied the competition for the British-India-China trade, with the Americans being the most aggressive and obtaining some de facto monopolies of its own. In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron made the first official trade visit to China. This meeting ended with the Prime Minister giving Beijing an ominous warning about future economic events if China continues to keep its markets closed and purportedly subsidize its own industries.(becker, 2010) This year it was reported in the news that Prime Minister Cameron is closely tied to the former East India Trading Co. (Economic Times 2014) The Opium Wars After the first Opium war which officially commenced on China in 1839 and continued until 1842. The treaty of Nanking was a resolution required to restore the piece. The British had won the war and took Hong Kong as one of it s new colonies and required that China open five additional ports to foreign trade. However, the drug was still illegal but selective enforcement became the trademark of the corrupt police. In 1856-1858, Britain and others managed to get China to open its ports free trade. At the same time, China legalized opium and its products and encouraged domestic cultivation and supply. Soon they began growing enough to supply over 50% of domestic usage and began exporting. Hong Kong, the heir to the opium trade was under British rule until 1997 when they ceded it back to China. They had built the most lucrative and active port in the world. Hong Kong remained a British colony for the next one one hundred and fifty four years before China regained its territory. Today, most developed countries still want in on China s trade, which has grown remarkably over the years, returning China to a major global power.

Markets for Heroin Since the industry often takes advantage of the illegality in most places, promoting its poison regardless of the law, China legalized it in 1858. Since this leads to higher profits, China in 1858 legalized it, promoting homegrown suppliers, which it taxed. The homegrown opium reached 19,100 tons in 1881. (McCoy, 2003). The U.S. cracked down by commencing the War on Drugs in 1914 with the Harrison Narcotics Act and each President of the U.S. thereafter, including Nixon (Cronkite, 1969) have wasted billions of dollars to eradicate illicit drug use and it does not appear they can declare a win anytime soon. Meanwhile, the CIA and USAid programs have spent billions on black operations, protection, weapons, transportation, support, food and supplies to the growers. The market has changed hands frequently with most of Eastern Asia getting involved at some point, such as Viet Nam, China entering the realm, Thai and Philippines involvement as well as Turkey and Iran and Afghanistan. At times prices reach ultimate highs several thousand dollars for one hundred forty pound but due to competition flooding the market prices have dwindled down to only six hundred dollars. Traffickers fight fiercely for a share of the market globally, playing games with logistics including transportation, military invasions to arrest foreign leaders involved in this dirty business When the market becomes unstable it can crash or rapidly expand. Thus, most investors continue to strategize at how to gain the most from the present circumstances. Conflicts that influenced the market, usage and distribution McCoy (2003) believes that there are unequivocally parallels between substance abuse in Post Viet Nam and what is happening in America today. He speaks out about the escalation of opium cultivation, transnational drug market trends, and drug use in response to war and conflict. There is a pattern repeated repeatedly starting with the war in Viet Nam and continuing

throughout the Gulf Wars and the current occupation of Afghanistan. Pakistan destinations are decided upon secretly and the government is using drones to assisinate its own citizens abroad. War after war exerted major influence over the commodity training markets especially opium. Many soldiers are the targeted population and result in many veterans returning home as addicts. U.S. President after President including Richard Nixon (Cronchite, 1969) has focused their administration on the War on Drugs wasting over one hundred and fifty billion dollars on a war they cannot win. Drug usage for recreational and medicinal purposes began with the dawn of man. The drug supply cannot be completely eradicated. Only control of its profits result in bloodbaths and fierce competition for control. The Presidential Administration and the military especially the CIA trained guerilla terrorist trained in secret camps offshore are major hypocrites. Starting with the distribution during the War in Viet-Nam (Arria, 2013). Either is in the dark over government intelligence agency activities or is a complete hypocrite. If it were not for the CIA supporting and assisting with heroin trafficking, the industry would have died out after World War II. I was naïve before reviewing this book about things like the U.S. sending farmers to Afghanistan to teach them how to cultivate and market other substances is likely a front for CIA operatives holding secret terrorist training sessions. They have succeeded in obtaining the early release from prison of very dangerous gangsters convicted for heinous offenses such as human slavery to personally oversee operations. One that McCoy identified was Lucy Luciano s fate. However, others have been given support and aid including Osama Bin Laden and his family. With the ever-changing face of the globe the monopoly changes hands due to brutal competition among drug syndicates which includes members of many countries mafias to represent each one s interest in the trade. The war on drugs is now associated with all military interventions.

CONCLUSION McCoy (2003) opined that: AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II, THERE WAS A STRONG CHANCE [sic] that heroin addiction could be eliminated in the United States. The war time security measures designed to prevent infiltration of foreign spies and sabotage to naval installations made smuggling into the United States virtually impossible Moreover, the international narcotics syndicates were weakened by the war and could have been decimated with a minimum of police effort. p. 24. He went on to summarize that the during the World Wars many traffickers retired or found some form of gainful legitimate employment. For example, the fighting in the Mediterranean made travel through the region nearly impossible, especially due to the number of submarines firing on traffic. Many people were forced to quit their habit during this period as the Chinese laboratories in Shanghai and Tientsin were halted during Japan s invasion of China, (McCoy, 2003) thereafter Mao Tse-Tung s armies captured these ports and drove the traffickers out of China. p. 25. Unfortunately, the American government through the Office of Naval Intelligence, the OSS and it s subsequent emergence as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave a hand up to the fallen syndicates and their Mafioso members who of course revived the trade post-war. Thanks to the stabilization efforts, the heroin market is enormous, tremendously lucrative, and is thriving in places where military occupations are taking place from Viet-Nam to World War II to our current occupation in Afghanistan the business flourishes protected and supplemented by a superpower government (Arria, 2013; Cronkite, 1969). Apparently, the presidency, congress and secret intelligence agencies need to be reminded of whom they actually legally work for in a representative form of democracy-the People consented to be governed not eliminated.

References Arria, M. (2013 January 8 th ) A Brief History Of How War Gets Us Hooked On Drugs. Motherboard blog. Last accessed via web on March 5, 2014 at http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/how-war-gets-you-hooked Becker, A. (13 November 2010). China has new wind in its sails. Retrieved from Global Issues.org [online] Retrieved from: http://www.globalissuesorg/news2010/11/13/7635. Last accessed 5 Feb 2014. Cronkite, Walter. President Nixon Declares War on Drugs. (1969 December 3). CBS Evening News. Last accessed via web on March 5, 2014 at https://wnmu.instructure.com/courses/872292/modules/items/6475490 Economics Times: World News (30 January 2014) Record s show David Cameron s links with East India Company. The Retrieved from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/worldnews/records-show-david-camerons-links-with-east-indiacompany/articleshow/29608225.cms Fay, P. (1997) The Opium War: 1840-1842 Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill McCoy, A. (2003) The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Revised Edition) Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books Merlin, M. (1984) On the Trail of the Ancient Opium Poppy. Rutherford: Farleigh Dickinson University Press Reed, C and Adams, P. The Politics of Heroin in South East Asia. (web) last accessed on March 5, 2013 at http://druglibrary.eu/library/books/mccoy/mccoy.pdf

Figures Figure 1:Soldier Guarding Poppy Plants: Prevent Early Harvest, (web) aboudningwellness.wordpress. Last accessed via web on March 5, 2014 at http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=awrtcxfymbdtkisaupojzbkf;_ylu =X3oDMTIzb3NqaHRpBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAM2OTRhZjQxNWE0NjI1 Mjk3ODYyMzQ2NjNiMDc5OTIxNQRncG9zAzE0BGl0A2Jpbmc-?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dopium %2Bheroin%2Bimages%2Bmarket%2Btrade%2Bvalue%2Bimages%26n%3D60%26ei% 3Dutf-8%26type%3Dch.33.w7.hp.17-02.us.dis_hk._._%26fr2%3Dsbtop%26hsimp%3Dyhsfh_lsonsw%26hspart%3Davg%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D14&w=800&h=550&imgurl =www.onemarinesview.com%2f.a%2f6a00d83452137a69e201157062b746970b- 800wi&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Faboundingwellness.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F12%2F0 2%2Fdecriminalizenow%2F&size=89.2KB&name=Leave+a+Reply+Cancel+reply&p=opium+heroin+imag es+market+trade+value+images&oid=694af415a462529786234663b0799215&fr2=sbtop&fr=&tt=leave+a+reply+cancel+reply&b=0&ni=112&no=14&ts=&tab=organic&si gr=124in14eb&sigb=1687geob9&sigi=122odpr0k&.crumb=tzf8lwjx1jb&type=ch.33. w7.hp.17-02.us.dis_hk._._&hsimp=yhs-fh_lsonsw&hspart=avg Traffickers take advantage of the illegality in most places, divert crops grown by licensed growers for medicinal purposes and provide Air America for support, protection and logistics

including transportation. America took control putting insurmountable obstacles in front of competition. (McCoy, 2003).