Asian Gold: A Quick Look at the Sources of the International Drug Trade

Spanning over forty-eight countries including Russia and Turkey, Asia is notable for its overall large size and population with dense settlements in some areas as well as sparsely populated regions in others. With a total of over 4.4 billion people, it has an ancient history of trade of commerce; thus it comes as no surprise that many of its regions are involved with the international drug trade. And how could it not be when it is the largest continent on the planet with fertile lands and hidden roads that make it easy to evade even the most watchful eye of the most sophisticated satellites?

Such is the case with the current drug trade in Asia. Despite the crackdowns on so many sources, it is still a flourishing business, most notably in two regions known as the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan) and the Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand).

Since the ancient times, there has always been the cultivation, use, and trade of psychoactive drugs, but with availability always comes restriction with the first ever written prohibition found in the Islamic Sharia law. Since then, there have been many attempts at drug prohibition, but none as stringent as the resurgent War on Drugs led by the United States in the twentieth century. Many prolegalization activists cite this resurgence as the reason the illegal drug trade still flourishes, following the dictates of the law of supply and demand.

Opium poppy—the plant that produces the white latex liquid that is used to produce opium and opium-based drugs such as heroin, codeine, and morphine—is grown in two major areas in Asia. The Golden Triangle has been the most extensive opium-producing area of the world since the 1950s until the Golden Crescent surpassed its production in the early twenty-first century.

As the second-largest producer of illicit opium, Myanmar has been a significant part of the international drug trade since World War II and is joined by Laos and Thailand as they share a border tripoint. Here, the opium poppy is grown by the tribespeople of the highlands living beyond the poverty line and are exploited by drug warlords and narcotrafficking groups, as well as certain branches of these countries’ governments and international corporations that act as shields for money laundering. The opium is produced then transported via horse and donkey caravans to refineries along the Thailand-Myanmar border and then converted into heroin and other heroin-based products before shipping across the border to various towns in the northern regions of Thailand and then to Bangkok before further distribution to international markets.

However, the Golden Triangle is not as productive as its Central Asian counterpart—the Golden Crescent. As heroin production in Southeast Asia declined, the production of opium in Afghanistan increased in 1991, making it the world’s primary producer of opium and hashish. With an older history than the Golden Triangle, it has been producing opium since the 1950s with only a momentary interruption with the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States in 2001 after 9-11. Back in the trade after a short hiatus, the Golden Crescent hit its peak production in 2007 with more than eight thousand of the world’s nine thousand total tons of opium. Almost a monopoly, the product is distributed to Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Central Asia and supplies opiates to over nine million users worldwide.

Traffickers take the opium through the mountainous borders to Iran to further distribute the product to Europe and Africa where there is a high demand for opiates. More than one million people are involved in this illicit trade, and like the poor poverty-stricken opium growers in the highlands of Southeast Asia, many of those involved have no choice since this is the only way they can earn a living in the harsh and unforgiving environments of their war-ridden lands.

An endless cycle of exploitation, the drug trade and the hard-to-pin-down concept of the War on Drugs is a terrible phenomenon brought about by the greed and corruption of a few who put importance on profit over people. This negative phenomenon will cost more lives and create endless suffering until a more viable and humanitarian approach is discovered. But for now, all we can do is watch as these events unfold and wait with bated breath for the eventual outcome, whatever that may be.

 

 

Sources

Wikipedia. 2016. “Opium Production in Afghanistan.” Last modified October 6. Accessed October 24, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan#Drug_trafficking_and_impact_around_the_world

Wikipedia. 2016. “Golden Crescent.” Last modified August 21. Accessed October 24, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Crescent

Wikipedia. 2016. “Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia).” Last modified September 30. Accessed October 24, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Triangle_(Southeast_Asia)

 

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