NCJ Number
128171
Date Published
1990
Length
127 pages
Annotation
The House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control convened a hearing on Asian heroin production and trafficking in August 1989.
Abstract
The hearing considered the political situation and drug control activities in producing countries, collaborative efforts between producing countries and the United States, and international drug control programs through the United Nations. A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) representative discussed the increased number of emergency room admissions in the United States for incidents involving heroin and the quality of heroin seized from Asian countries. He specifically focused on opium cultivation in Pakistan, Laos, India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The DFA's prepared statement noted that heroin seizures in the United States have increased by over 200 percent between 1981 and 1988 and that opium poppies are illicitly produced mainly in the Golden Triangle countries of Burma, Thailand, and Laos in Southeast Asia and in the Golden Crescent countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran in Southwest Asia. An official from the Agency for International Development discussed his agency's involvement in narcotics control programs in several Asian countries. These programs include opium crop reduction, replacement, and area development as well as drug awareness. A representative from the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics Matters addressed the link between heroin and cocaine markets and opium production in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and India. He also noted heroin transit routes through Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Bulgaria, Lebanon, and Nigeria. 8 tables