ANTH106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime, Cough Medicine, Cold Turkey
5 Jun 2018
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ANTH6
Political Economy of Opiates
PART ONE: Paul T. Cohen - "The political economy of opiates"
Botanical and Pharmacological characteristics of opiates
• Opium is the sap of the opium poppy
• Morphine is found in option. About 10% content
• Heroin is a synthesis of morphine and the industrial acid, acetic anhydride
Areas of Cultivation
• Areas of illicit cultivations
- Golden Triangle (Burma/Myanmar, North Thailand, North Laos)
- Golden Crescent (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran)
• Opium is cultivated legally for pharmaceutical in 19 countries, include: India, china,
japan, turkey, France, UK and Australia.
The Trocki theses
• The development of capitalism in Europe was linked to the expansion of drugs and
drug economies
• Drugs (alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, sugar) provided to the first mass consumer
markets due to their addictive qualities
• The problem of the tea trade with China. Tea had to be bought with silver
which caused a constant drain on European silver supplies
• Opium (Cultivated in India) as the solution to the trade deficit with China
• in 1773, the East Indian Company (EIC) was granted a monopoly over production and
sale of opium, following British colonisation
• Opium became a fully capitalist commodity - mass produced and with a mass
consumer markets:
- Opium cultivated in Bengal by more than a million farmers, but was under strict
control,
- EIC created a well organised system of packaging, storage, pricing and quality
control
- The mass market was China an S. East Asia
Opium addiction and mass consumer markets
• Chinese emperor views the spread of opium as a sign of cultural decay, and wanted to ban
it. But the market was too lucrative.
• 15 million Chinese opium addicts by 1830's
• Opium Wars (1839-42; 1856-58) fought to maintain lucrative trade
• Legalisation of opium imports (1860) encouraged local cultivation in S. West China
(Yunnan, Sichuan) by hill tribes (e.g. Hmong, Yao)
• Opium production reached 30,000-40000 tons by 1906
• 40 million opium addicts in China by 1890
• Migration of Chinese to S. East Asia due to famines in south China
• Colonial government (e..g French) established opium dens for Chinese addicts. Opium
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monopolies sold opium imported from india to licensed Chinese merchants
• By 1930: 6000 government opium dens S. East Asia supplying about 500,000 register
addicts
• Chinese opium merchants formed interconnected syndicates which allowed rapid
accumulation of capital and investment in commodity production (e.g. spices, mining)
and first Asian banks
Opium Cultivation in the Golden Triangle
• Opium was first cultivated in GT region by Hill tribes who fled from China in response to
Chinese military campaigns
• Local opium cultivation at first discouraged by Opium monopolies as a threat to profits
• But local cultivation was encouraged during WWII due to problem of obtaining supplies
from Indian and Middle East
Post-war surge in opium cultivation in Golden Triangle (GT)
• Early 1970s = 1000 tones (70% of global illicit production. mid 1990s = 2700 tons (50%
of global illicit production)
• Major cause: ethics insurgency and war-lordism in N. East Burma in response to an
uncompromising centralist policies of Burma's military government from early 1960s
• By 1990s there were 16 armed ethnics groups in rebellion against central government.
Most armies trafficked in opiates to finance rebellions.
Causes of paid increase in opium production in Afghanistan
• Opiate production inAfghanistan has exceeded that of the GT since mid 1990s,
largely due to insurgency warlordism and a weak central government
• Islamic guerrilla groups (mujaheddin) financed war against Soviet Union by
collecting taxes in opium. These taxes affected growers and traffickers.
• 1989-1996: Rival mujaheddin factions financed fighting in civil war with profits
from opiates
• 1996-2000: Taliban (one of the mujaheddin groups) expanded opium production by a
20% tax on drug shipments by traffickers.
• Taliban prohibited opium cultivation in July 2000 but after 9/11 nd defeat in 2001, it
has renewed dependence on opium o fund guerrilla war agains central govt. and win
support from local farmers. Opium was now of the main sources of income foe
peasants.
• Pro-Government warlords also invest heavily in opium cultivation and trafficking
• This led to a super in opium production to 7400 tons in 2007 (93% of global illicit
supply). in 2015, production was 3300 tones (70% of global illicit production). = 38%
reduction from previous year
Failure of the "war on Drugs" supply eradication"
• "Balloon Effect": Eradication success is one area leads to expansion in another area
• Opium eradicated in Thailand in mis 1980s due to government increased political
control over highland opium-growing areas and successful alternative development
programs. However, opium cultivation expanded in Laos and Myanmar (Burma)
• Eradication campaign in Laos (200-2005) stimulated increased production in
Myanmar due to price rises combined with increased demand for heroin in China.
Myanmar 2015: 650 tons (14% of global production)
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