Global Production Of Opium Has Doubled Since 1988 It’s Fueled By Drug Trafficking Rings, Ineffectual Or Corrupt Governments

Fueled by expanding drug trafficking rings and ineffectual or corrupt governments, the world’s production of opium has risen dramatically in recent years and is pushing up addiction rates for heroin, according to the U.S. drug policy chief.

Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired general who heads the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, expressed alarm Wednesday about the increases after returning from a trip to Southeast Asia that overlapped President Clinton’s visit to Thailand. McCaffrey visited the “Golden Triangle,” which spans the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos and produces most of the world’s opium, the narcotic from which heroin is derived.

Global opium production has doubled since 1988 and is now about 4,000 metric tons a year, according to estimates compiled by the CIA and cited by McCaffrey. It takes about 10 tons of opium to make one ton of heroin, drug experts say.

“This massive commodity production is looking for a marketplace,” and its greatest impact is likely to be in the regions where opium poppies are grown, McCaffrey said. He said drug trafficking and addiction are up sharply in China, notably near the Golden Triangle, and in Pakistan, which borders the orld’s second-largest opium producer, Afghanistan.

At the same time, international drug trafficking organizations are “aggressively” marketing heroin in the U.S. and Europe.