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DRUG PROBLEMS
(Continuedfrom page6)
resulted in the infamous " Opium
War" of 1839 to 1842.
The results of the Opium War
were twofold. First, the Chinese
had to pay the victorious British
millions in war indemnity. Sec–
ond, it broke the back of any
etfective resistance by the Chi–
nese government to the impor ta–
tion of the drug. Opium contin–
ued to flow in and silver out of
China, and in 1856, another war
was fought with the British. Thc
rcsults were the same. The C hi–
nese wcre forced to legalize the
import of opium.
All etfcctive opposition to Brit–
ai n's control of the trade relations
with China was ended.
China Grows lts Own
Fina lly, the Chinese decided t hat
if they couldn't beat them, then
they should join them. A small
tax was levied on imported opi um
and domestic production encour–
aged . Poppy soon became a valu–
ablc cash crop for the peasants as
it brought two to four times as
much as wheat grown on the
same amount of land.
The territory most suited for
the g rowing of the opium poppy
was thc provinces of Szechwan
and Yunnan, which bordered t he
Southeast Asían s tates of T onkin
(Vietnam), Laos and Burma.
This mountainous region had a
high enough elevation for thc
growth of the delicate poppy. In
addition it has traditionally been
the home of scattered hill tribes
cthnically distinct from both the
Han Chi nese to the nor th and the
lowland races of Southeast Asia.
These nomadic hill peoples har–
bored no cons ideration for border
demarcat ions. So the growing of
the opium poppy soon spilled over
into Southeast Asia, chiefly into
the Shan states of Burma and thc
mountains of northern Laos,
Vietnam and Thailand.
Eventually, missionaries and a
growing group of people con–
cerned with the spread of opium
smoking to Europe brought pres–
sure lo bear on the English gov-
Augusl. 1981
ernment. In 1915 the expor tation
of British opium to China was
e f fect ively ba n ned. But not
befare multiple millions in profits
had been made at the expense of
the lives of so many Chinese. And
not befare the seeds of a future
plague of opium had bee n planted
in the remate highlands of South–
east Asia's Golden Triang le.
France Waters
The victorious communist gov–
ernment in postwar Chi na etfec–
tively stopped the cultivation of
the opium poppy throughout the
country, even as far as its remate
southern borders. The one nation
that was delivered to opium has
delivered itself from it!
Today the People's Republic of
China is no longer a factor in
inte rnationa l narcotics traffic.
But enough seeds had been
planted long befare in the remate
mountains of Southeast Asia to
allow this area eventually to more
than fill any gap left by China in
supplying heroin to the European
and American markets. By the
end of the 1950s, Burma, Laos
and Thailand together had be–
come the source of more than half
of the world's illicit supply of
opium and opium products.
How did this transformation
occur? Once again t he govern–
ments of the West, having failed
to come to grips and puni sh
g reedy pushers, must bear a s ig–
nificant portia n of the rcsponsi–
bility.
While the British had been col–
oniz ing India a nd Burma a nd
forcing the opium trade on Ch ina,
France was busy bringing
T
ndo–
china (modern Laos, Cambodia
and Vietnam) under her political
domination.
France began the conq uest of
lndochina by annex ing Saigon in
1862. Then Cambodia became a
protectorate in 1863 and later
central Vietnam ( 1883) , T onkin
(1884) and Laos ( 1893) foi–
Jowed.
To finance th e conquest of
these arcas and to underwrite the
heavy expenses of colonial rule,
France turned to that most lucra–
tive and readi ly avai lable source
of income- opium. l ndochina
already had a large opium-smok–
ing population- pr imarily of the
Chinese merchant class-and im–
ported opium from China.
France followed the time-hon–
ored traditions of the govern–
ments of the Orient. She created
severa! gove rnment-licens ed
opium monopol ies that imported
the drug from India, paid the
colonial government a t ax and
then sold it to the populations of
lndocbina.
Later , factories were built lo
refi ne raw lndian opium resin
into smokable opi um and the dif–
ferent drug interests were consol–
idated and reorganized under a
single government-administ rated
opi um monopoly.
Profits soared. By 1900, opium
accounted for more than half of
French l ndoch ina's colonial reve–
nues. France did not succumb to
tbe same moralistic p ressures
against the drug that ended Brit–
ain's participation in the China
trade. The governors of Indochi na
continued to control the lucrat ive
and dest ruct ive trade un ti l the
advent of World War
ll.
World War 11
During World War
11 ,
French
lndochina was occupied by the Jap–
anese. As the Vichy French were
nominally allicd with Japan against
t he Allies, the French retained
administration of lndochina.
Batt le lines effect ive ly dis–
rupted Indochina's opium supply
routes from India and forced the
opium monopoly lo develop a new
source of supply in arder to con–
tinue this very lucrative trade.
That new source was readily
avai lable in the mountains of
northwestern Vietnam and north–
ern Laos.
The opi um poppy had long
been grown in this remate region
in small quantities by Hmong and
Yao t ribesmen who had migrated
from Yunn a n , bringing with
them the knowledge of opium
cultivation. Thci r new borne in
l ndochina was well suited to the
growing of poppies. Large ex–
panses of mountain rain forcs ts
provided virgin terri tory for the
nomadic hilltribes' slash-and–
burn techniques of agr iculture.
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