The Drug Business

Any questions from Unit 7?

Remember the Unit 8 essay?

There is a Unit 9 essay.

One more seminar!!!!!

Very little time to make up missing assignments.

The earliest “war against drugs” in the United States was in response to opium

At a time when the practice of medicine was quite primitive, opium became the essential ingredient in innumerable remedies dispensed in Europe and America for the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, asthma, rheumatism, diabetes, malaria, cholera, fevers, bronchitis, insomnia, and pain of any kind

Summary: opium medically

approved Used for a variety of

ills

As the primary ingredient in many “patent” medicines—actually, secret formulas that carried no patent at all—opiates were readily available in the United States until 1914

By the 1850s, morphine tablets and a variety of morphine products were readily available without prescription

In 1856, the hypodermic method of injecting morphine directly into the bloodstream was introduced to American medicine

In the 1870s, morphine was exceedingly cheap, cheaper than alcohol

Beginning of 18th century, a German pharmacist poured liquid ammonia over opium and obtained an alkaloid, a white powder that he found to be many times more powerful than opium

• He named the substance morphium

By the 1850s, morphine tablets and a variety of morphine products were readily available without prescription

In 1856, the hypodermic method of injecting morphine directly into the bloodstream was introduced to American medicine

In the 1870s, morphine was exceedingly cheap, cheaper than alcohol

At the turn of the twentieth century, diacetylmorphine was synthesized, creating the most powerful of the opiates—heroin—marketed as a nonhabit-forming analgesic to take the place of morphine

Opiates, including morphine and heroin, were readily available in the United States until 1914

The American response to drugs in the twentieth century is directly related to international affairs and trade with China

The British East India Company enjoyed a government-granted monopoly over the China trade

Opium was first prohibited by the Chinese government in 1729, a time when only small amounts of the substance were reaching China

In 1782, an attempt by a British merchant ship to sell 1,601 chests of opium resulted in a total loss, for no purchasers could be found

By 1799, however, a growing traffic in opium led to an imperial decree banning the trade

As consumption of imported opium increased and the method of ingestion shifted from eating to smoking, official declarations against opium increased, as did smuggling

The outlawing of opium by the Chinese government led to the development of an organized underworld

In the 1830s the shippers grew bolder, entering Chinese territorial waters with their opium cargo

In 1839, in a dramatic move, Chinese authorities laid siege to the port city of Canton, confiscating and destroying all opium waiting offloading from foreign ships

In 1840, a British expedition attacked the poorly armed and organized Chinese forces

The Second Opium War began in 1856, when the balance of payments once again favored China

In the 1870s, the British opium monopoly in China was challenged by opium imported from Persia and cultivated in China itself

By the 1860s Chinese immigrants were clustering in Pacific Coast cities, where they established Chinatowns—and smoked opium

In 1887, Congress responded to obligations imposed on the United States by a Chinese-American commercial treaty by banning the importation of smoking opium by Chinese subjects

In 1901, Congress enacted the Native Races Act, which prohibited the sale of alcohol and opium to “aboriginal tribes and uncivilized races”

In 1905 Congress banned the sale of opium to Filipino natives except for medicinal purposes and three years later banned sales to all Philippines residents

Reverend Brent, supporter of the IRB, proposed the formation of an international opium commission to meet in Shanghai in 1909

A second conference was held in The Hague in 1912, with representatives from the United States, China, and ten other nations

The conference resulted in a patchwork of agreements known as the International Opium Convention, which was ratified by Congress in 1913

The Harrison Act is in response to this.

The Harrison Act provided that persons in the business of dealing in drugs covered by the act—including opium derivatives and cocaine—were required to register yearly and to pay a special annual tax of $1

The statute made it illegal to sell or give away opium or opium derivatives and coca or its derivatives without a written order on a form issued by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Persons who were not registered were prohibited from engaging in interstate drug trafficking, and anyone who possessed drugs without first registering and paying the tax faced a penalty of as long as five years imprisonment and a fine of as much as $2,000

Concern over federalism led Congress to use the taxing authority rather than the police authority of the federal government to respond to the problem of drug control

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue was in charge of upholding the Harrison Act

In 1915, 162 collectors and agents of the Miscellaneous Division of the Internal Revenue Service were given the responsibility of enforcing drug laws

In 1919, a narcotics division was created within the Bureau of Prohibition, with a staff of 170 agents and an appropriation of $270,000

The powers of the narcotics division were clearly limited to the enforcement of registration and record-keeping regulations

Beginning in 1918, narcotic clinics opened in almost every major city

Following WWI, the medical profession stopped dispensing drugs to addicts, forcing them to look to illicit sources and giving rise to an enormous illegal drug business

Like any other business that is international in scope, heroin trafficking requires extensive transportation networks, but since the commodity is illegal, these operate in the shadows of global trade

Drug barons base their operations in remote safe havens

Most of the heroin smuggled into the United States originates in such areas where the opium poppy thrives—parts of Asia known as the Golden Triangle, the Golden Crescent, Mexico, and, more recently, Colombia

The Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia encompasses approximately 150,000 square miles of forested highlands, including the western fringe of Laos, the four northern provinces of Thailand, and the northeastern parts of Burma

Burma is the world’s second largest producer of opium and accounts for about 90 percent of the total heroin production of the Golden Triangle

Transnational organized crime groups in Myanmar operate a multibillion-dollar criminal industry that stretches across Southeast Asia

In 1826, the British introduced opium use into their colony of Burma

French colonial officials in Golden Triangle used paramilitary organizations and indigenous tribes against various insurgent groups, particularly those following a Marxist ideology

The French withdrew from Southeast Asia in 1955, and several years later the United States took up the struggle against Marxist groups

With the defeat of the Chinese Nationalist forces in 1949, the Third and Fifth Armies of Chiang Kai-shek stationed in the remote southern province of Yunnan escaped over the mountainous frontier into Burma’s Shan States

In 1961, the People’s Republic of China drove the KMT into the Thai portion of the Golden Triangle

In 1961 and 1969, U.S.-backed airlifts of KMT troops to Taiwan were the last official contacts between the KMT remnants on the mainland and Chiang Kai-shek’s government.

4,000 strong, became known as the Chinese Irregular Forces (CIF)

The Shan States, an area somewhat larger than England, lie on a rugged, hilly plateau in the eastern part of central Burma, flanking the western border of China’s Yunnan Province

They contain an array of tribal and linguistic groupings. The largest group is the Shans

The Burmese government’s heavy-handed approach to the Shan States set the stage for revolution

Originally known as the Shan United Army (SUA), the Mong Tai Army (MTA; Mong Tai is Shan for “Shan State), under the leadership of Chang Chifu, who is half-Chinese, half-Shan and better known as Khun Sa, resorted to opium trafficking in order to purchase arms and support its independence movement

The SUA/MTA came to dominate the opium trade along the Thai-Burma border where about 400,000 hill tribesmen had no source of income other than heroin

In the 1980s the Thai government succeeded in driving the MTA out of Thailand and back into Burma, but the group continued to dominate opium traffic, taxing drug caravans crossing their territory

Golden Triangle traffickers began to recognize the value of switching from heroin to amphetamine: It made unnecessary the cultivating vast field of poppies and the manufacturing could be accomplished in small one-room laboratories

In 1994, a joint U.S./Thai operation (“Tiger Trap”) closed the Thai/Myanmar border in areas where the MTA operated

Khun Sa began secret negotiations with Myanmar and in 1996 a deal was made

As a result, the amount of Southeast Asian heroin entering the United States dropped dramatically

Until 1989, another formidable private army in the Golden Triangle served the Burmese Communist Party (BCP)

In 1989, its ethnic rank-and-file Wa tribesmen—fierce warriors whose ancestors were headhunters—rebelled, and the BCP folded as an armed force

United Wa State Army (UWSA) uses heroin—and more recently methamphetamine—trafficking as a means of funding efforts against Burmese control

Since the surrender of the SUA/MTA, the USWA has reigned supreme in narcotics production in Burma

In 2000, Myanmar negotiated a truce with the Wa which gave them autonomy in their state and the Wa reached an accommodation with China

In 2005, eight senior leaders of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) were indicted in the United States on charges of heroin and methamphetamine trafficking

Whether the source is the BCP, CIF, MTA, SSA-A, or the UWSA, opium in the form of morphine base or of almost pure heroin, as well as methamphetamine, is usually brokered in Thailand, which has modern communications and transportation systems

In 1991 a military coup—one of 17 since 1932—overthrew the democratically elected Thai government

In 2001, a democratically elected prime minister initiated a vigorous campaign against the trade in methamphetamine, a major drug problem in Thailand

At the center of much of Thai drug trafficking are ethnic Chinese organizations such as the Triads

According the U.S. Department of State (2008), ethnic Chinese groups dominate the drug syndicates operating in areas controlled by the UWSA and the SSA-S

The central role that the Golden Triangle played in the heroin trade has been significantly diminished, in part because of economic pressure from China

The Golden Crescent of Southwest Asia includes parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan

Pakistan has been a producer of opium for export since the earliest time of Muslim rule and the later British Empire

Much of the heroin trade in and from Pakistan is controlled by a consortium of three Quetta-based families, referred to as the Quetta Alliance

The Pashtuns: a tribal group that founded Afghanistan

Opium is the cash crop that has traditionally enabled feuding tribes in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province to purchase weapons and ammunition

By 1998, the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, made up primarily of Pashtuns, controlled most of the country, and Afghanistan became one of the world’s largest producers of heroin

Until 2001, the country was the world’s second largest grower of the opium poppy, producing about one-third of the heroin entering the United States, and about 80 percent of the heroin consumed in Europe

Afghanistan now produces 90 percent of the world’s opium and the drug trade represents more than half of the country’s gross domestic product

The United States has pressured Pakistan to move against poppy cultivation, but the infusion of hundreds of thousands of Afghan tribesmen into Pakistan has made this difficult, if not impossible

Mexico is the source of “black tar” or brown heroin, which gained a foothold in the American drug market after the demise of the “French Connection”

In the five years after the collapse of the French connection, Mexico became the major source of U.S. heroin

Black tar“ heroin is a less refined but more potent form of the substance

The poppy is not native to Mexico but was brought into the country at the turn of the twentieth century by Chinese laborers who were helping to build the railroad system

The vast and remote border between Mexico and the United States makes patrolling very difficult and facilitates the transportation of drugs into Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico

Since the 1980s Colombia has become a major poppy grower and Colombians have become major heroin wholesalers

By 1998, Colombian heroin accounted for more than 50 percent of the drug smuggled into the United States

Cocaine is an alkaloid found in significant quantities only in the leaves of two species of coca shrub

In the middle of the nineteenth century, scientists began experimenting with the substance, noting that it showed promise as a local anesthetic and had an effect opposite that of morphine

By the late 1880s, a feel-good pharmacology based on the coca plant and its derivative cocaine was promoted for everything from headaches to hysteria

After the turn of the century, cocaine, like heroin, became identified with the urban underworld

From 1930 until the 1960s there was limited demand for cocaine and, accordingly, only limited supply

During the late 1960s and early 1970s attitudes toward recreational drug use became more relaxed, a spin-off of the wide acceptance of marijuana

Cocaine soon became associated with a privileged elite

For many decades, coca leaf was converted to cocaine base in Bolivia and Peru, then smuggled by small aircraft or boat into Colombia where it was refined into cocaine in jungle laboratories

Some Colombian traffickers set up laboratories in other Latin American countries and even the United States in response to increased law enforcement in Colombia and the increasing cost of ether, sulfuric acid, and acetone in Colombia

In the past, because the quality of Colombian coca was significantly less than that grown in Peru and Bolivia, Colombia had not been a major coca producer

The organizers who arrange for the importation and wholesale distribution of heroin and cocaine typically avoid physical possession

Importation often entails little or no risk of arrest—heroin or cocaine can be secreted in a variety of imported goods, and possession cannot be proven

The enormous profits that accrue in the business of drugs are part of a criminal underworld where violence is always an attendant reality

Below the multi-kilo wholesale level, cocaine or heroin is an easy-entry business, requiring only a source, clientele, and funds

The sale of heroin and cocaine/crack is carried out by thousands of small-time operators who dominate particular local markets

Control is exercised through violence

Amphetamines are synthetic drugs, and their effects are similar those of cocaine

First synthesized in 1887, amphetamines were introduced into clinical use in the 1930s and were eventually offered as a “cure-all” for just about every ailment

Legally produced amphetamine is taken in the form of tablets or capsules

Illegally produced amphetamine is available in tablet and powdered form (called “ice”) that is sometimes smoked

There are three basic types of amphetamine, but the methyl-amphetamines have the greatest potential for abuse because they are fast acting and produce a “rush”

The main active ingredient in methamphetamine, phenyl-2-propanone, referred to as P2P, is widely available in Europe, and bulk shipments of P2P from Germany are often the source of illegal methamphetamine produced in the United States

The illegal activities associated with methamphetamine production and hazardous waste encompass more than the clandestine lab cooks and workers

The distribution of methamphetamine has been a main staple of outlaw bikers, although there has been an increase in the involvement of Mexican gangs operating in southern California, where they produce methamphetamine in unpopulated desert areas

State laws against marijuana were often part of a reaction to Mexican immigration

In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which put an end to lawful recreational use of the substance

The source of marijuana, the hemp plant, grows wild throughout most of the tropical and temperate regions of the world, including parts of the United States

Hemp has been cultivated for several useful products

Hashish, which is usually imported from the Middle East, contains the drug-rich resinous secretions of the cannabis plant, which are collected, dried, and then compressed into a variety of forms—balls, cakes, or sheets

There is little or no pattern to marijuana trafficking in the United States, although some areas have apparently gotten hooked on the business

The marijuana business has a positive impact on the legitimate economy supported by the cultivators—everything from grocery stores to car dealerships, depend on marijuana

There are about 2,500 derivatives of barbituric acid and dozens of brand names for these derivatives

Lawfully produced barbiturates are found in tablet or capsule form

Illegal barbiturates may be found in liquid form for intravenous use because lawfully produced barbiturates are poorly soluble in water

At relatively high dosages they are used as anesthetics for minor surgery and to induce anesthesia before the administration of slow-acting barbiturates

There is no apparent pattern to the illegal market in barbiturates, and traffickers may sell them as part of their portfoli

Methaqualone was first synthesized in 1951 in India, where it was introduced as an antimalarial drug but found to be ineffective

Eight years after it was first introduced into the United States, methaqualone’s dangers became evident

Although the drug is chemically unrelated to barbiturates, methaqualone intoxication is similar to barbiturate intoxication

Methaqualone is now illegally manufactured in Colombia and smuggled into the United States

Phencyclidine is reported to have received the name PCP—“peace pill”—on the streets of San Francisco

There are more than one hundred variations (analogs) of the substance

In the 1960s, PCP became commercially available for use in veterinary medicine as an analgesic and anesthetic, but diversion to street use led the manufacturer to discontinue production in 1978

It is now produced easily and cheaply in clandestine laboratories in tablet, capsule, powder, and liquid form and sometimes sold as LSD

Like methamphetamine, PCP has been distributed by outlaw motorcycle clubs

Ecstasy, the common name for 3, 4-MethyleneDioxyMethAmphetamine or MDMA, is a synthetic drug with a chemical structure similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline

Ecstasy did not receive a great deal of attention until its “rediscovery” in the late 1970s that ecstasy received a great deal of attention because of its purported ability to produce profound pleasurable effects

Although most MDMA/ecstasy consumed domestically is produced in Europe—primarily the Netherlands and Belgium—a limited number of MDMA labs operate in the United States

In recent years, Israeli crime syndicates, some composed of Russian émigrés associated with Russian OC, have forged relationships with Western European traffickers and gained control over a significant share of the European market

In 1949, LSD was introduced into the United States as an experimental drug for treating psychiatric illnesses, but until 1954 it remained relatively rare and expensive, because its ingredients were difficult to cultivate

LSD is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and it is relatively easy to produce

LSD was popular for a time during the 1960s, when it became part of the “hippie” culture

Current use appears limited, and distribution patterns are not well known

There are many chemical variations, or analogs, of the drugs discussed in this chapter• For example, semi-synthetic opiates such as

hydromorphine, oxycodone, etorphine, and diprenorphine, as well as synthetic opiates such as pethidine, methadone, and propoxyphene

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union

Laborers International Union International Longshoreman’s

Association

Joseph Lanza Arthur Coia Paul Kelly Joseph Ryan Thomas Gleason James R. Hoffa and James R. Hoffa, Jr. Red Dorfman Jackie Presser Moses Steinman

NY Fulton Fish Market Construction industry Garment Center in NYC Labor racketeering Solid waste disposal Money laundering Stock fraud Private banking

Any questions or comments?

One more seminar

Remember the unit 8 and unit 9 essays