TNAG-0416-FCO40-462-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 109

Some hours later it is scraped off a dark-brown substance with a

The yield from each plant is

knife and a milky latex exudes from the incision. This latex darkens and coagulates on exposure to air. and collected. This is raw opium characteristic smell and bitter taste. very small, and therefore for the production of opium big areas of cultivation and large manpower for collection of the opium gum are needed. Opium is produced legally in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, the USSR, Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan and Japan. Morphine is a homogeneous drug prepared by the extraction of raw opium. The average morphine

2 content of opium is about 10% (Table 2). It is converted into heroin by the simple chemical process of acetylation. Morphine and heroin cannot easily be synthesized. Opium remains the essential raw material for the manufacture of these drugs. One metric ton of opium yields approximately 220 lb of heroin.

Raw opium is stable in transport but it is comparatively bulky. Standard packages of opium, confiscated in Hong Kong, weighing

2 kilograms (4 lb) are shown in Plate 1. Morphine is more compact to transport. A compressed 8 oz block of morphine hydrochloride corresponding to the morphine content of these opium packages, measures only 4" x 3" x 13". Heroin does not travel as well as morphine, since it is very susceptible to moisture. Available evidence suggests that heroin manufacture in Asia takes place close to retail marketing areas for this reason.

Strict control of production has forced up the black market price of opium drugs to fantastic levels (Table 3). The criminal rewards are great. Raw opium of good quality can fetch up to £300 per pound. This figure includes the cost of growing, processing, bribery in transit, and transportation. But the material is comparatively bulky, and difficult to conceal. Converted to heroin, a compact product is obtained worth more than £60,000 per pound (retail) in the American market. Since the average heroin addict will consume daily at least 50 mg of heroin, the market is worth more than $20 per day for each individual addict. In the United States alone, an estimated total of 250,000 heroin addicts spend the staggering total of $7.5 m. per day. For 1971 the estimated cost would be approximately $2,737,500,000. If 75% of those addicted resorted to crime, the cost in crime committed to sustain the habit would be more than $8 bill. per year at a minimum Heroin is in fact forty times more powerful than opium. It can create addiction in 14 days and wreck a man within months. Addiction creates the demand, enslaves the victim and escalates the price. Criminal pay off is associated in the form of blackmail, white slavery and violence.

President Nixon's offensive against the hard drug menace calls for immediate action on four fronts: halting illicit traffic at foreign sources, prosecuting drug pushers, treating the addicts, and developing an intensive public information programme to spell out the hazards of drug-taking. The report of a United States Special Study Mission published recently states: "Once the poppy is cut, and the opium gum extracted and sold on the illegal market, the battle to prevent the end product heroin from reaching the addict is lost. The problem must be attacked at the source in the poppy fields of the Near and Far East".

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