University of Virginia Library

Strange Story

The story of opium in Southeast Asia is a
strange one at every turn. But the conclusion is
known in advance: this war has come home
again — in a silky grey powder that goes from a
syringe into America's mainline.

Most of the opium in Southeast Asia is
grown in a region known as the "Fertile
Triangle," an area covering northwestern
Burma, northern Thailand, and Laos. It is a
mountainous jungle inhabited by tigers,
elephants, and some of the most poisonous
snakes in the world.

The source of the opium that shares the area
with these exotic animals is the poppy, and
the main growers are the Meo hill tribespeople
who inhabit the region. The Meo men chop
back the forests in the wet season so that the
crop can be planted in August and September.

Poppies produce red, white or purple
blossoms between January and March, and
when the blossom withers, an egg-sized pod is
left. The women harvest the crop and make a
small incision in the pod with a three bladed
knife.

The pod exudes a white latex-like substance
which is left to accumulate and thicken for a
day or two. Then it is carefully gathered, boiled
to remove gross impurities, and the sticky
substance is rolled into balls weighing several
pounds.

A fraction of the opium remains to be
smoked by the villagers, but most is sold in
nearby rendezvous with the local smugglers. It
is the Meos' only cash crop. The hill tribe
growers can collect as much as $50 per kilo,
paid in gold, silver, various commodities, or
local currency. The same kilo will bring $200 in
Saigon and $2000 in San Francisco.

There are hundreds of routes, and certainly
as many methods of transport by which the
smugglers ship opium — some of its already
refined into heroin — through and out of
Southeast Asia. But there are three major
networks.

Some of the opium from Burma and
northern Thailand moves into Bangkok, then to
Singapore and Hong Kong, then via military
aircraft, either directly or through Taiwan, to
the United States.