Category: The Golden Triangle Chronicles
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Jim Morrison Meets “China White”
Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, succumbed to a heroin overdose in 1971, linked to “China White” from the Golden Triangle.
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The Golden Triangle 2023: Opium Surges
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has just published their December, 2023 survey of opium production in the Golden Triangle: Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023: Cultivation, Production and Implications. Bottom line: Opium and the consequent production of heroin are surging in The Golden Triangle. For most careful observers of this region, the…
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The Golden Triangle Part 1: An Opium History
A long-form post about the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia.
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Following the Opium Trail to the Golden Triangle
Hill Tribe women lancing opium poppy pods in the Golden Triangle. Photo attribute: Al Jazeera News (2018) Introduction In 2023, opium production is reaching all time highs in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia. Hill Tribe farmers will plant as much as 77,000 hectares of opium poppy which will produce nearly 1,000 metric tons of…
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Profiles in Opium: Vang Pao & The Tragedy of the Hmong
This post is a chapter from a much larger manuscript about the Golden Triangle which I’m currently writing and should be published later this year. In war, there are winners and losers. While the Vietnam Wars were fought by France and the United States from 1947-1973, another war-a secret war-was fought in the mountains of…
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Portrait of a Golden Triangle Opium Farmer
An Overview The opium poppy, papaver somnifera, has been grown for centuries in the endless hills and mountains of the Golden Triangle-a region that stretches from northern Thailand, up through Shan State in Burma, Laos, to its northern end in Yunnan Province, China. Today, the Golden Triangle and its poppy crop still produce the finest…
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A Jungle Night
Tales from the Siamese Puzzle Box continues with a simple night in the jungle.
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Onward to Kengtung in Shan State
A road trip to Kengtung, Burma may just change your life.
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The Lost Temple of Doi Tung
In a fog shrouded bamboo forest, our travelers to Old Siam find an ancient temple and meet a mysterious old woman.