The Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) supplies the media with a geography
of drugs that makes it appear that it has control over
critical information in on drugs. Consider, for example,
the report in the New York Times that "Colombia
produces than 90 percent of the cocaine and about two-thirds
of the heroin that reaches the United States."
The New York Times cites its source as the DEA. The
DEA also provides geographical data to the United Nations
International Narcotics Control Board, which noted in
its annual report that "Afghanistan was the main
source of illicit opium with 70 percent of opium production
in 2000 and up to 90 percent of heroin in European drug
markets." Although such pinpointing of the origins
of "90 percent" or "70 percent"
of a narcotic to a particular country may be convenient
for waging wars on drugs in the media, they are fictoids
of governmental agencies.
The DEA and other government agencies
can only determine the origin of the drugs it has seized
or bought. And, according to its own estimates, these
seizures and purchases account for less than a tenth
of the total consumption of cocaine, opium and heroin
that is distributed, consumed and never found by law
enforcement agencies. Of the small fraction that is
seized, only a small portion is analyzed by labs to
detects clues to its origins. So, even if the lab analysis
were totally reliable (and they are not), they would
not reveal where the vast bulk of drugs come from.
Nor can the
geography of drugs be extrapolated from the small fraction
that are analyzed since the drug seizures and purchases
are not random events. They come mainly from looking
in pre-selected channels and from purchases aided by
criminal informers, and so only identify the proximate
location of the drugs passing through these channels
and informers. The DEA has no way of knowing from the
origin of the ocean of cocaine that is not intercepted.
In the case of cocaine, the base is produced from coca
leaves grown in many nations, including Peru, Colombia,
Bolivia an Ecuador. It can be extracted, processed and
turned into cocaine almost anyplace in the world. In
the case of opium, the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)
had been cultivated for centuries in virtually every
country between Bulgaria and China, including Pakistan,
Burma, Laos, India and Afghanistan. It can then be converted
into morphine base and heroin virtually anywhere. Ten
square miles of poppies, anywhere, could supply the
morphine base for most of the American or European heroin
market. All that is required to convert the morphine
base into heroin is a small kitchen and acetic anhydride
(popularly known as A.A.). Once converted, it cannot
be traced to its origins with any scientific certainty.
So claims that "90 percent" of the heroin
in Europe comes from poppies
grown in Afghanistan are simply plucked out of thin
air.
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The continuous
flow of drugs from other countries is one of the primary
reasons why
addiction
treatment continues to be a major
issue in the United States.
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