Tag: Opium
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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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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…