Abstract
World production of heroin in 1993 was less than half that of cocaine. Like cocaine, heroin is normally produced in three stages. The first of these is done by the farmers who grow the opium poppies and the second and third in laboratories. From 10 kg of opium, 1 kg of heroin is produced, with morphine as an intermediate stage. Opium is harvested by scoring the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy. A milky fluid oozes out, similar to latex oozing from the incision on a rubber tree. This ‘opium latex’ is dried in the sun to produce brown opium gum, which hardens into cakes or bricks. The gum can be powdered and sniffed, or it can be eaten as it has been for centuries in Asia, or it can be smoked.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Raymond Kendall, Secretary-General, Interpol, lecture to Europe 2000 Conference on Organized Crime, Berlin, 7–9 October 1993, P. 7
Gerald Posner, Warlords of Crime: The .New Mafia? London, Macdonald Queen Anne Press, 1989, of which extracts were published in the Observer Magazine? 5 March 1989, p. 30
Alison Jamieson, Drug Trafficking After 1992 Conflict Studics No. 250, London, RISCT, April 1992, p. 3
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1995 Richard Clutterbuck
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Clutterbuck, R. (1995). The Heroin Trail. In: Drugs, Crime and Corruption. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376472_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376472_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-63102-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37647-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)