 1 Opium history
 2 chronology
 3 Minoan opium
 4 Opium Afghanistan
 5 Opium poppy
 6 Opium Processing
 7 SMOKING OPIUM
 8 Opium tea
 9 Opium addiction
 10 Opium/Heroin Route 98
 11 Opium/opiates
 12 Opium Eaters
 13 Cultivation of Opium in India
 14 Opium N.Korea
 15 PCP
 16 Piracetam
 17 Poppers and AIDS
 18 Poppers and queers
 19 Salvia Divinorum
 20 Singapore's blood money.


\1 Opium history

Opium History c.3400 B.C. The opium poppy is cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. The Sumerians refer to it as Hul Gil, the 'joy plant.' The Sumerians would soon pass along the plant and its euphoric effects to the Assyrians. The art of poppy-culling would continue from the Assyrians to the Babylonians who in turn would pass their knowledge onto the Egyptians. c.1300 B.C. In the capital city of Thebes, Egyptians begin cultivation of opium thebaicum,grown in their famous poppy fields.The opium trade flourishes during the reign of Thutmose IV, Akhenaton and King Tutankhamen. The trade route included the Phoenicians and Minoans who move tee profitable item across the Mediterranean Sea into Greece, Carthage, and Europe. c.1100 B.C. On the island of Cyprus, the "Peoples of the Sea" craft surgical-quality culling knives to harvest opium, which they would cultivate, trade and smoke before the fall of Troy. c. 460 B.C. Hippocrates, "the father of medicine", dismisses the magical attributes of opium but acknowledges its usefulness as a narcotic and styptic in treating internal diseases, diseases of women and epidemics. 330 B.C. Alexander the Great introduces opium to the people of Persia and India. A.D. 400 Opium thebaicum, from the Egytpian fields at Thebes, is first introduced to China by Arab traders. 1300's Opium disappears for two hundred years from European historical record. Opium had become a taboo subject for those in circles of learning during the Holy Inquisition. In the eyes of the Inquisition, anything from the East was linked to the Devil. 1500 The Portugese, while trading along the East China Sea, initiate the smoking ofopium. The effects were instantaneous as they discovered but it was a practice the Chinese considered barbaric and subversive. 1527 During the height of the Reformation, opium is reintroduced into European medical literature by Paracelsus as laudanum. These black pills or "Stones of Immortality" were made of opium thebaicum, citrus juice and quintessence of gold and prescribed as painkillers. 
 1600's Residents of Persia and India begin eating and drinking opium mixtures for recreational use. Portugese merchants carrying cargoes of Indian opium through Macao direct its trade flow into China. 1606 Ships chartered by Elizabeth I are instructed to purchase the finest Indian opium and transport it back to England. 1680 English apothecary, Thomas Sydenham, introduces Sydenham's Laudanum, a compound of opium, sherry wine and herbs. His pills along with others of the time become popular remedies for numerous ailments. 1700 The Dutch export shipments of Indian opium to China and the islands of Southeast Asia; the Dutch introduce the practice of smoking opium in a tobacco pipe to the Chinese. 1729 Chinese emperor, Yung Cheng, issues an edictprohibiting the smoking of opium and its domestic sale, except under license for use as medicine. 1750 The British East India Company assumes control of Bengal and Bihar, opium-growing districts of India. British shipping dominates the opium trade out of Calcutta to China. 1753 Linnaeus, the father of botany, first classifies the poppy, Papaver somniferum-- 'sleep-inducing', in his book Genera Plantarum. 1767 The British East India Company's import of opium to China reaches a staggering two thousand chests of opium per year. 1793 The British East India Company establishes a monopoly on the opium trade. All poppy growers in India were forbidden to sell opium to competitor trading companies. 1799 China's emperor, Kia King, bans opium completely, making trade and poppy cultivation illegal. 1800 The British Levant Company purchases nearly half of all of the opium coming out of Smyrna, Turkey strictly for importation to Europe and the United States. 1803 Friedrich Sertuerner of Paderborn, Germany discovers the active ingredient of opium by dissolving it in acid then neutralizing it with ammonia. The result: alkaloids--Principium somniferum or morphine. Physicians believe that opium had finally been perfected and tamed. Morphine is lauded as "God's own medicine" for its reliablity, long-lasting effects and safety. 1805 A smuggler from Boston, Massachusetts, Charles Cabot, attempts to purchase opium from the British, then smuggle it into China under the auspices of British smugglers. 1812 American John Cushing, under the employ of his uncles' business, James and Thomas H. Perkins Company of Boston, acquires his wealth from smuggling Turkish opium to Canton. 1816 John Jacob Astor of New York City joins the opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchases ten tons of Turkish opium then ships the contraband item to Canton on the Macedonian. Astor would later leave the China opium trade and sell solely to England. 1819 Writer John Keats and other English literary personalities experiment with opium intended for strict recreational use--simply for the high and taken at extended, non-addictive intervals 1821 Thomas De Quincey publishes his autobiographical account of opium addiction, 'Confessions of an English Opium-eater.' 1827 E. Merck & Company of Darmstadt, Germany, begins commercial manufacturing of morphine. 1830 The British dependence on opium for medicinal and recreational use reaches an all time high as 22,000 pounds of opium is imported from Turkey and India. Jardine-Matheson & Company of London inherit India and its opium from the British East India Company once the mandate to rule and dictate the trade policies of British India are no longer in effect. 
 1837 Elizabeth Barrett Browning falls under the spell of morphine. This, however, does not impede her ability to write "poetical paragraphs." 
 March 18, 1839 Lin Tse-Hsu, imperial Chinese commissioner in charge of suppressing the opium traffic, orders all foreign traders to surrender their opium. In response, the British send expenditionary warships to the coast of China, beginning The First Opium War. 1840 New Englanders bring 24,000 pounds of opium into the United States. This catches the attention of U.S. Customs which promptly puts a duty fee on the import. 1841 The Chinese are defeated by the British in the First Opium War. Along with paying a large indemnity, Hong Kong is ceded to the British. 1843 Dr. Alexander Wood of Edinburgh discovers a new technique of administering morphine, injection with a syringe. He finds the effects of morphine on his patients instantaneous and three times more potent. 1852 The British arrive in lower Burma, importing large quantities of opium from India and selling it through a government-controlled opium monopoly. 1856 The British and French renew their hostilities against China in the Second Opium War. In the aftermath of the struggle, China is forced to pay another indemnity. The importation of opium is legalized. Opium production increases along the highlands of Southeast Asia. 1874 English researcher, C.R. Wright first synthesizes heroin, or diacetylmorphine, by boiling morphine over a stove. In San Francisco, smoking opium in the city limits is banned and is confined to neighboring Chinatowns and their opium dens. 1878 Britain passes the Opium Act with hopes of reducing opium consumption. Under the new regulation, the selling of opium is restricted to registered Chinese opium smokers and Indian opium eaters while the Burmese are strictly prohibited from smoking opium. 
 1886 The British acquire Burma's northeast region, the Shan state. Production and smuggling of opium along the lower region of Burma thrives despite British efforts to maintain a strict monopoly on the opium trade. 1890 U.S. Congress, in its earliest law-enforcement legislation on narcotics, imposes a tax on opium and morphine. Tabloids owned by William Randolph Hearst publish stories of white women being seduced by Chinese men and their opium to invoke fear of the 'Yellow Peril', disguised as an "anti-drug" campaign. 1895 Heinrich Dreser working for The Bayer Company of Elberfeld, Germany, finds that diluting morphine with acetyls produces a drug without the common morphine side effects.Bayer begins production of diacetylmorphine and coins the name "heroin." Heroin would not be introduced commercially for another three years. Early 1900's The philanthropic Saint James Society in the U.S. mounts a campaign to supply free samples of heroin through the mail to morphine addicts who are trying give up their habits. Efforts by the British and French to control opium production in Southeast Asia are successful. Nevertheless, this Southeast region, referred to as the 'Golden Triangle', eventually becomes a major player in the profitable opium trade during the 1940's. 1902 In various medical journals, physicians discuss the side effects of using heroin as a morphine step-down cure. Several physicians would argue that their patients suffered from heroin withdrawal symptoms equal to morphine addiction. 1903 Heroin addiction rises to alarming rates. 1905 U.S. Congress bans opium. 1906 China and England finally enact a treaty restricting the Sino-Indian opium trade. Several physicians experiment with treatments for heroin addiction. Dr. Alexander Lambert and Charles B. Towns tout their popular cure as the most "advanced, effective and compassionate cure" for heroin addiction. The cure consisted of a 7 day regimen, which included a five day purge of heroin from the addict's system with doses of belladonna delirium. U.S. Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act requiring contents labeling on patent medicines by pharmaceutical companies. As a result, the availabilty of opiates and opiate consumers significantly declines. 1909 The first federal drug prohibition passes in the U.S. outlawing the imporation of opium. It was passed in preparation for the Shanghai Conference, at which the US presses for legislation aimed at suppressing the sale of opium to China. February 1, 1909 The International Opium Commission convenes in Shanghai. Heading the U.S. delegation are Dr. Hamilton Wright and Episcopal Bishop Henry Brent. Both would try to convince the international delegation of the immoral and evil effects of opium. 1910 After 150 years of failed attempts to rid the country of opium, the Chinese are finally successful in convincing the British to dismantle the India-China opium trade. Dec. 17, 1914 The passage of Harrison Narcotics Act which aims to curb drug (especially cocaine but also heroin) abuse and addiction. It requires doctors, pharmacists and others who prescribed narcotics to register and pay a tax. 1923 The U.S. Treasury Department's Narcotics Division (the first federal drug agency) bans all legal narcotics sales. With the prohibition of legal venues to purchase heroin, addicts are forced to buy from illegal street dealers. 1925 In the wake of the first federal ban on opium, a thriving black market opens up in New York's Chinatown. 1930's The majority of illegal heroin smuggled into the U.S. comes from China and is refined in Shanghai and Tietsin.

Early 1940's During World War II, opium trade routes are blocked and the flow of opium from India and Persia is cut off. Fearful of losing their opium monopoly, the French encourage Hmong farmers to expand their opium production. 1945-1947 Burma gains its independence from Britain at the end of World War II. Opium cultivation and trade flourishes in the Shan states. 1948-1972 Corsican gangsters dominate the U.S. heroin market through their connection with Mafia drug distributors. After refining the raw Turkish opium in Marseille laboratories, the heroin is made easily available for purchase by junkies on New York City streets. 1950's U.S. efforts to contain the spread of Communism in Asia involves forging alliances with tribes and warlords inhabiting the areas of the Golden Triangle, (an expanse covering Laos, Thailand and Burma), thus providing accessibility and protection along the southeast border of China. In order to maintain their relationship with the warlords while continuing to fund the struggle against communism, the U.S. and France supply the drug warlords and their armies with ammunition, arms and air transport for the production and sale of opium. The result: an explosion in the availability and illegal flow of heroin into the United States and into the hands of drug dealers and addicts. 1962 Burma outlaws opium. 1965-1970 U.S. involvement in Vietnam is blamed for the surge in illegal heroin being smuggled into the States. To aid U.S. allies, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sets up a charter airline, Air America, to transport raw opium from Burma and Laos. As well, some of the opium would be transported to Marseille by Corsican gangsters to be refined into heroin and shipped to the U.S via the French connection. The number of heroin addicts in the U.S. reaches an estimated 750,000. October 1970 Legendary singer, Janis Joplin, is found dead at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel, a victim of an "accidental heroin overdose." 1972 Heroin exportation from Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, controlled by Shan warlord, Khun Sa,becomes a major source for raw opium in the profitable drug trade. July 1, 1973 President Nixon creates the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) under the Justice Dept. to consolidate virtually all federal powers of drug enforcement in a single agency. Mid-1970's Saigon falls. The heroin epidemic subsides. The search for a new source of raw opium yields Mexico's Sierra Madre. "Mexican Mud" would temporarily replace "China White" heroin until 1978. 1978 The U.S. and Mexican governments find a means to eliminate the source of raw opium--by spraying poppy fields with Agent Orange. The eradication plan is termed a success as the amount of "Mexican Mud" in the U.S. drug market declines. In response to the decrease in availability of "Mexican Mud", another source of heroin is found in the Golden Crescent area--Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating a dramatic upsurge in the production and trade of illegal heroin. 1982 Comedian John Belushi of Animal House fame, dies of a heroin-cocaine--"speedball" overdose. Sept. 13, 1984 U.S. State Department officials conclude, after more than a decade of crop substitution programs for Third World growers of marijuana, coca or opium poppies, that the tactic cannot work without eradication of the plants and criminal enforcement. Poor results are reported from eradicationprograms in Burma, Pakistan, Mexico and Peru. 1988 Opium production in Burma increases under the rule of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the Burmese junta regime. The single largest heroin seizure is made in Bangkok. The U.S. suspects that the 2,400-pound shipment of heroin, en route to New York City, originated from the Golden Triangle region, controlled by drug warlord, Khun Sa. 1990 A U.S. Court indicts Khun Sa, leader of the Shan United Army and reputed drug warlord, on heroin trafficking charges. The U.S. Attorney General's office charges Khun Sa with importing 3,500 pounds of heroin into New York City over the course of eighteen months, as well as holding him responsible for the source of the heroin seized in Bangkok. 1992 Colombia's drug lords are said to be introducing a high-grade form of heroin into the United States. 1993 
 The Thai army with support from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) launches its operation to destroy thousands of acres of opium poppies from the fields of the Golden Triangle region. October 31, 1993 Heroin takes another well-known victim. Twenty-three-year-old actor River Phoenix dies of a heroin-cocaine overdose, the same "speedball" combination that killed comedian John Belushi. January 1994 Efforts to eradicate opium at its source remains unsuccessful. The Clinton Administration orders a shift in policy away from the anti- drug campaigns of previous administrations. Instead the focus includes "institution building" with the hope that by "strengthening democratic governments abroad, [it] will foster law-abiding behavior and promote legitimate economic opportunity." April 1994 Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the Seattle-based alternative rock band, Nirvana, dies of heroin-related suicide. 1995 The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia is now the leader in opium production, yielding 2,500 tons annually. According to U.S. drug experts, there are new drug trafficking routes from Burma through Laos, to southern China, Cambodia and Vietnam. January 1996 
 Khun Sa, one of Shan state's most powerful drug warlords, "surrenders" to SLORC. The U.S. is suspicious and fears that this agreement between the ruling junta regime and Khun Sa includes a deal allowing "the opium king" to retain control of his opium trade but in exchange end his 30-year-old revolutionary war against the government. November 1996 International drug trafficking organizations, including China, Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico are said to be "aggressively marketing heroin in the United States and Europe." ReferencesBooth, Martin. Opium: A History. London: Simon & Schuster, Ltd., 1996. Latimer, Dean, and Jeff Goldberg with an Introduction by William Burroughs. Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium. New York: Franklin Watts, 1981 McCoy, Alfred W. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991. Musto, David F. The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987

China's opium history is an outstanding example of a nation helpless to protect itself from the onslaught of Western civilization, when that civilization has determined to exploit for the sake of the money involved. The Chinese were an essentially drugged society who have been ruined and degradated by the drug known as opium. The poppy plant has been in China for twelve centuries, and has had medical uses for nine centuries. It was not until the beginning of the 17th century that the practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smoking purposes was introduced into China. This habit was indulged in by the Dutch in Java and by them taken to Formosa, where it spread to the Chinese mainland. In 1729, when the foreign import of opium had reached two-hundred chests, the Emperor Yung Ching issued the first anti-opium edict, enacting severe penalties on the sale of opium and the opening of opium-smoking divans.
 In 1750, the British East India Company assumed control of Bengal and Bihar, huge opium growing districts of eastern India, where they could easily dump Indian opium on China. The Chinese government repeatedly appealed to the British government to stop these exports but the appeal fell on deaf ears. In 1757, the Chinese government made a deal with the British so both nations could prosper. The trade of opium, almost all of which was supposed to be for medical usage, was restricted to Canton where its sale could be controlled in the best interest of China. Chinese merchants serve as middle men between the foreigners and the authorities. For more opium related topics, click here Despite all the smuggling of opium that ensued, the Chinese government was active in their fight for resistance. In 1800, China developed an anti-opium policy. Laws are passed prohibiting domestic cultivation and the importation of the drug. Chinese plans seemed to help the nation wide addiction for in 1839, British traders found themselves with twenty thousand chests of unsold opium in their store ships off Canton. This opium was disposed of by Lin, a powerful official sent by the emperor to put a stop to smuggling. The opium was destroyed by mixing it with lime and salt water, and then dumping the contents into creeks. The attempt by the Chinese to enforce their authority and to uphold their own laws was the last straw. War with England followed and is generally known as the First Opium War. This war consisted of British ships sailing into Chinese territory, bombarding, and seizing port after port. The Chinese were well beaten and peace between the two countries was concluded in 1843. As indemnity, the Chinese ceded Hong-Kong to Great Britain and paid that country twenty-one million dollars. In addition, certain Chinese cities were opened up as treaty-ports -- Canton, Amoy, Fu-chau, Ning-po, and Shanghai -- and into these ports Indian opium could be imported. Click Here for info on Opium and the Hmong Things went on after this for fifteen years, marked by perpetual resistance by China to the flood of Indium opium that kept rising higher and higher. Again a war took place between the two countries, the Second Opium War, which, like the first, ended in a victory for Great Britain and opium. The Chinese were forced to pay three million dollars indemnity and open up five more treaty ports. By the Treaty of Tientsin, signed in 1858, the importation of Indian opium into China was legalized. China's struggles against opium, to enforce its own laws and be master within its territory, had been in vain. At this point, the Chinese began to raise opium themselves, in order to compete with the Indian opium which they could not exclude. After 1858, extensive tracts of land were given over to poppy production. Whole provinces ceased to grow grain and other necessities and diverted their rich river bottoms to the raising of opium. Chinese opium, however, never supplanted Indian, being inferior in quality. Thus, the demoralization of China proceeded for the next half-century.
 In 1906, the incredible happened for China. Through the aid and support of the Untted States, the Chinese entered into a ten-year agreement with Great Britain by the terms of which the Chinese were to decrease their poppy production 10 percent a year for ten years, while the British agreed to cut down their exports of Indian opium 10 percent a year for a like period. The ten-year contract began in 1907, and by 1910, the end of a three-year probation period, the Chinese had firmly shown their determination to get rid of opium. At the end of the ten years, in 1917, China was practically free from opium cultivation but foreign opium continued to flow into China, together with an increasing amount of manufactured drugs. China is now once more a large opium-producing country. They are growing poppies in defiance of their own laws and raising the plant on a very large scale.

Opium Wars

Emperor of China Declares War on Drugs by Paul Chrastina Lin Tse-hsü, the governor of the Chinese province of Hu-Huang, was an accomplished administrator and bureaucrat who wrote stylized Confucian poetry in his spare time. During his long career, 53-year-old Lin had acquired a reputation as a man who could be counted on to do the right thing in a difficult situation. His high degree of morality and integrity had earned him the nickname “Lin the Clear Sky,” and his opinions were highly regarded at the court of Chinese Emperor Tao-kuang. In October, 1838, Lin Tse-hsü was summoned to the Imperial Palace in Peking, where the Emperor personally assigned him to stamp out opium addiction in China. 

Lin accepted the assignment, knowing that it represented one of the most difficult problems faced by the Chinese empire. The sale of opium had been made illegal in China in 1800, but the black-market narcotics trade flourished in defiance of the law, and there were an estimated two million Chinese opium addicts. Addiction was especially common around the port city of Canton, where foreign merchants smuggled large quantities of the narcotic drug into China. Commissioner Lin launched his anti-drug campaign in Canton, where he set up headquarters and took command of the local naval forces. On March 10, 1839, Lin proclaimed that the opium trade would no longer be tolerated in Canton, and he began arresting known opium dealers in the local schools and naval barracks. Those found guilty of purchasing, possessing or selling opium were sentenced to public execution by strangulation. “Let no one think,” Lin proclaimed, “that this is only a temporary effort on behalf of the Emperor. We will persist until the job is finished.” Lin consulted with local physicians and established a treatment center near Canton. He encouraged opium addicts to enroll there—under amnesty—to shed their habit. To combat the popular belief that opium addiction was an impossible habit to break, Lin frequently told the story of a man he had met who “had been an addict for thirty years, smoking an ounce of opium a day, but who managed to give it up.” Soon, Lin claimed, “his cheeks began to fill out and the strength came back into his limbs.” Lin’s next move was to crack down on foreign smugglers of opium. He knew that very little opium was grown in China. Most opium was grown in British India, where the drug was a legal commodity. If Lin could stop foreign merchants from smuggling opium into his country, then China’s addiction problem would be solved. Lin knew that the opium was brought to China in large British clipper ships, which also carried legal trade items. The cargo masters of these ships sold their opium to clandestine Chinese buyers at Lintin Island in Canton Bay. After the foreign merchants unloaded their contraband cargo, they proceeded peacefully up the Pearl River to Canton, where they held permits to buy tea and silk, and to sell a variety of legal trade goods. To the foreign clipper ships anchored at Canton, Commissioner Lin sent messages demanding that they turn over all of the opium they had aboard, as well as any supplies of the drug that might be stored at Lintin Island. He also commanded them to sign guarantees promising never to bring opium to China again, on pain of trial and execution if found guilty. The foreign traders were given three days to comply with Commissioner Lin’s demands, but they seemed to take the situation very lightly and made no move to turn over any opium. Lin guessed that the foreigners were counting on corrupt Chinese officials to protect them. Many Cantonese officials, including the viceroy and high ranking naval commanders, were secretly accepting bribes, called “squeeze money” from the western merchants; some were even using Imperial navy vessels to move the contraband drug ashore. On the morning of March 25, 1839, Commissioner Lin gave the opium smugglers a demonstration of the the seriousness of his intent. He ordered the suspension of all trade with the western merchants, who lived together in a small neighborhood of waterfront homes, offices, and trading docks in Canton. Lin’s troops surrounded the foreign neighborhood, building barricades across the streets to prevent Chinese people from visiting the docks. Three rows of armed Chinese patrol ships lined up in the river opposite the trading houses. The foreign community was informed that it was being held in detention until the opium trade was suppressed. Lin’s action was protested by the ranking British naval officer in the Chinese port, Captain Charles Elliot. The merchants, Elliot asserted, had the full support of the British government, and were not bound to obey the laws of China. 

Commissioner Lin laid down the terms under which the foreign merchants could regain their freedom and their right to trade in Canton. First, they must turn over all of the opium concealed aboard their ships, then they must sign a binding pledge not to bring any more opium to China in the future. Until these requirements were met, the foreigners would not be permitted to purchase any tea, rice, or silk for export. On March 27, the merchants agreed to surrender their opium to Commisioner Lin. When Lin informed Emperor Tao-kuang of his success, he was rewarded with an exquisitely prepared dinner of roebuck venison, a message signifying “Promotion Assured,” and a hand painted silk scroll from the Emperor bearing the characters “Good Luck, Long Life.” During the next two months, over two and a half million pounds of processed opium were delivered under tight security from the merchant ships to the Chinese mainland. Commisioner Lin was faced with the problem of disposing of the enormous stockpile of opium which he had confiscated. After consulting with Cantonese engineers and chemists, Lin had three large trenches dug along the seacoast. Each trench measured seventy five wide by one hundred fifty feet long, was seven feet deep, and was lined with flagstones and rough-hewn timbers. The three trenches were surrounded by a tall bamboo fence. On the first day of June, 1839, Commissioner Lin composed a ritual address to the Spirit of the South China Sea. He advised the spirit that he “should shortly be dissolving opium and draining it off to the great ocean,” and suggested that all sea creatures should retreat to deeper water “to avoid being contaminated,” until the opium was completely run off. On June 3, the destruction of the foreign opium began. The trenches were filled with water, and the first chests of opium were broken open and thrown in to soak. Next, large quantities of salt and lime were dumped into the mixture. The ensuing chemical reaction heated and liquefied the opium, releasing clouds of nauseating gas. A team of five hundred closely guarded laborers with shovels and hoes stirred the slowly decomposing material and ran it off into a stream that led to the sea. The first worker who was caught trying to steal some opium was immediately beheaded as a warning to the rest. For the next two weeks, Commissioner Lin supervised the methodical destruction of the opium, or “foreign mud,” from a pavilion set up near the trenches. When he advised the Emperor that the work was finished, Lin received the warm reply, “This is something that is greatly delightful to the hearts of mankind.” Despite his success, Commissioner Lin could see that the British merchants were not yet willing to abide by the laws of China. Trying to escape from Lin’s authority, some merchants had moved away from Canton and sailed down the Canton estuary to the Portuguese-controlled port of Macao, where it seemed they were intending to resume smuggling opium. Other British ships anchored near the sparsely inhabited island of Hong Kong, at the mouth of the estuary. On July 12, a Chinese villager was killed by a rampaging gang of drunken British seamen who had come ashore at Kowloon, a mainland village near Hong Kong. Lin demanded that the men responsible for the murder be turned over to him for punishment. Captain Elliot responded that the seamen could only be tried under British jurisdiction. Captain Elliot then tried the sailors himself, with results that were not satisfactory to Commissioner Lin. One seaman was acquitted of a murder charge for lack of evidence, and five others were found guilty of participation in a general riot. When Lin again demanded that the guilty men be delivered to Canton for justice, Elliot sent word that the men would all be appropriately punished when they returned to England. To force Elliot to submit to his demands, Lin ordered that delivery of all rice, tea, meat and fresh vegetables to the anchored ships at Macao to be intercepted and cut off. Freshwater springs that were known to be used by the British at various points along the coast were poisoned. Large banners were posted to warn Chinese villagers not to drink from the streams. Lin then pressured the Portuguese authorities at Macao to evict the British from their harbor, under penalty of severe trade restrictions. These drastic measures forced all of the British ships to retreat from Macao to Hong Kong by the middle of August. On August 31, Commissioner Lin learned that the merchant ships anchored off Hong Kong had been joined by a twenty-eight gun British frigate. Although this news was not good, Lin, who had the use of a fleet of Chinese war junks at his disposal, was not frightened by the arrival of a single British warship. Lin assumed that his Chinese warships were superior to the ships of the British navy. He thought that Europeans were primitive barbarians. British fabrics were inferior to Chinese silk, British earthenware was inferior to Chinese ceramics, and the general behavior of British seamen seemed uncivilized, so Lin assumed that the British navy must be inferior to the Chinese navy. Lin did not know that even British civilian merchant ships were armed with cannon that were far deadlier and more accurate than any of the guns of the Chinese fleet. On September 4, two British merchant ships and a launch from the newly arrived warship attacked three Chinese junks that tried to prevent them from landing at Kowloon to obtain water and supplies. Although the Chinese warships returned the British fire, they did no damage to the British ships, and were forced to retreat after being badly shot up by cannonballs. The captains of the defeated Chinese junks feared that their failure would be viewed by higher authorities as a disgraceful act of cowardice. The captains therefore reported to Commissioner Lin that they had won a victory and had sunk a British ship. Commissioner Lin forwarded this version of the encounter to the Emperor and composed an angry proclamation the British, warning them that because “you have presumptuously fired upon and attacked our naval cruisers, our army and navy will now be required to launch a devastating attack upon you, and you will suffer just punishment at our hands.” Lin informed the Emperor that he was preparing to permanently drive the merchants away from Hong Kong. By September 22, Lin had assembled a fleet of eighty junks and fireships at the mouth of the Pearl River. Confident that the British were alarmed by his preparations for naval warfare, Lin wrote a poem noting that “a vast display of Imperial might has shaken all the foreign tribes, and, if they now confess their guilt, we will not be too hard on them.” Lin ignored messages from Captain Elliot, who impudently demanded that British merchants be allowed to buy the last crop of Chinese tea that had been harvested that year. Commissioner Lin insisted that the British could not enjoy any of the benefits of legal trade unless they agreed to obey Chinese laws and stopped importing opium. If the British could not honor these terms, they were ordered to leave Chinese waters and never return. Captain Elliot refused to concede. In early November, Lin learned that a second British warship, an eighteen-gun frigate, had joined the British merchant fleet at Hong Kong. On November 3, the two British warships approached the Chinese fleet with a sealed letter, demanding supplies and the immediate resumption of trade.

The admiral of the Chinese fleet returned the merchants’ letter unopened, at which point the frigates attacked the anchored Chinese fleet. The British immediately sank five of the largest Chinese war junks and severely damaged many others in an attack that lasted just under 45 minutes. Commissioner Lin now faced serious difficulties. If he truthfully reported his defeat to the Emperor, he was likely to be disgraced and punished. He therefore kept his report of the battle brief and vague, describing six imaginary “smashing blows” that had been inflicted on the impetuous British barbarians. Pleased with Lin’s report, Emperor Tao-kuang gave his thanks. The Emperor also inquired whether or not Commisioner Lin had, in fact, completely stopped the smuggling of opium. Independent reports had arrived in Peking, claiming that small British boats were delivering chests of opium to remote villages along the seacoast north of Canton. The Emperor reminded Lin that his job was to “clear away the opium-evil throughout all of China,” not just in Canton. Lin assured the Emperor that the despicable foreign drug trade was rapidly drawing to a close. He spent the next several months fortifying Canton harbor by sinking barges loaded with stones at its entrances. He also purchased an American sailing ship and outfitted it with cannon supplied by some enterprising Portugese merchants. In the beginning of June, 1840, Lin suddenly found himself confronting a large British expeditionary force that had come from Singapore, which included steam-powered gunboats and thousands of British marines. In a report to the Emperor, Lin wrote, “English warships are now arriving at Canton. Although it is certain that they will not venture to create a disturbance here, I am certain that they will, like great rats, attempt to shelter the vile sellers of opium.” Still confident that the Chinese coast-guard could prevail in the event of trouble, Lin concluded “People say that our junks and guns are no match for the British.... But they do not know!” Commissioner Lin’s forces, however, proved to be no match for the invaders, who immediately imposed a blockade on the Canton estuary, then attacked and took control of strategically important sites along the China coast. The British commander sent a sobering message to Emperor Tao-kuang in Peking, demanding “satisfaction and redress” for Commissioner Lin’s actions at Canton. On August 21, 1840, the Emperor dismissed Lin Tse-hsü from his post as Imperial Commissioner. “You have caused this war by your excessive zeal.” the Emperor wrote. “You have lied to us, disguising in your dispatches the true color of affairs. Instead of helping us, you have only caused confusion to arise. Now, one thousand unending problems are sprouting. You have behaved as if your arms are tied. You are no better than a wooden dummy. As we think about your grievous failings, we become furious, and teen melancholy.” Stripped of his title, Lin Tse-hsü was exiled to the isolated northern frontier province of Ili, where he was given the task of supervising large scale irrigation and flood control projects. Lin Tse-hsü gradually recovered from the disgrace of his failure to put an end to the opium trade. Ten years after his dismissal, the Emperor again summoned him into service. Lin was reinstated as Imperial Commissioner, and assigned to travel to the rebellious province of Kwangsi to negotiate with rebel factions. Lin Tse-hsü collapsed and died while en route to Kwangsi on November 22, 1850, at the age of 67. The successive Imperial Commissioners who replaced Lin Tse-hsü in Canton were unable to stop the opium traffic. In conflicts known as the First and Second Opium Wars, British naval and marine forces seized control of Hong Kong, ravaged the Chinese coastline and briefly occupied the capital city of Peking. In 1858 the Chinese government, bowing to British demands, reluctantly legalized the importation of opium. SOURCES: The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. by Arthur Waley. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1958 Commissioner Lin and the Opium War. by Hsin-pao Chang. Harvard U. Press, 1964. The Chinese Opium Wars. by Jack Beeching. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. The Opium Wars in China. by Edgar Holt. Putnam, 1964. Foreign Mud. by Maurice Collis. W.W. Norton Co., Inc., 1946. British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-1842. by Michael Greenberg. Cambridge University Press, 1951. Strangers at the Gate: Social disorder in South China, 1839-1861. by Frederic Wakeman, Jr. University of California Press, 1966. 

Opium Wars, Two 1839-42 and 1856-60, two wars between China and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in the 19th cent., British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China, unable to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (1843). These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's treaty ports began. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the United States were also party. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. China's subsequent attempt to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing as well as Britain's determination to enforce the new treaty terms led to a renewal of the war in 1859. This time the British and French occupied Beijing and burned the imperial summer palace (Yuan ming yuan). The Beijing conventions of 1860, by which China was forced to reaffirm the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin and make additional concessions, concluded the hostilities.

\2 chronology and history

5000 BC Opium is known in Mesopotamia and Assyrian med. 1500 BC Used as an anaesthetic by Egyptian physicians. 7th Cen. Opium poppy is brought to China from Middle East via India. 1200 Used in the Middle East as medicine and intoxicant. 1541 A Swiss alchemist, Paracelsus introduces a tincture of opium (powered opium dissolved in alcohol) called laudanum in Europe. 1650 Opium smoking imported from India rampant in China. 1700 A tincture of opium combined with camphor known as paregoric used to control diarrhoea is still in use. 1805 Serturner isolated morphine for medical use in 1825. 1839 Three year opium war between China and England. 1862 Use of opium during the civil war created about 400,000 addicts. 1870 Medicines containing opium proliferated in west. 1874 C.R.Alder Wright produced heroin. 1875 San Francisco passes ordinance baling opium dens. 1898 Heroin, a derivative of morphine is developed and thought to be non-addictive at the time. 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act, taxes and restricts opium products. 1920 Opium dens proliferate in most U.S. cities. 1930 Opium abuse almost completely replaced by heroin. 1931 Agreement for opium control in Far East signed in Bangkok. 1942 Opium Poppy Control Act prohibits cultivation in U.S. 1946 Iran prohibits opium cultivation. 1948 WHO becomes responsible for narcotics control. 1970 Controlled Substances Act classifies opium medicines as schedules II, III, and V drugs. Heroin is a schedule I drug. 1971 Turkey agrees to stop opium cultivation. Laos instituted an anti-opium law

Opium is believed to have originated in Asia Minor and have been in use medically since then. First mentioned by Sumarians, then Egyptians, used for its constipating effect in the treatment of diarrhoea. Homer wrote of its use as nepenthes. In classical Greece Theophrastes and Dioscordes both mention opium use as pain killers and known to be used recreationally from its sale of opium cakes and candies. Galen prescribed opium for most ailments in ancient Rome. This use has also been recorded by Ovid, and Virgil. 

Other medical problems treated were headaches, snake bites, asthma, epilepsy, colic, and urinary complaints as well as difficult births. The opium medicine was taken in solution form as smoking was not known until modern times. The cultivation of opium migrated west to Greece and Rome, southwest to the middle east and Egypt, and eastward to India then China.

\3 Minoan opium

The Museum of Heraklion in Crete, which I visited in June of 1959, has a special significance not only for the student of Cretan culture but also for the pharmaco-botanist, who will observe on many of the exhibited statues, frescoes, vases, etc. a variety of plants from that epoch, including many medicinal herbs. I was particularly struck by an idol of the Minoan goddess "with raised hands" which was discovered in Gazi in 1936. In an article in the Archaiologiki Ephemeris (1936, pp. 278-291) Prof. Sp. Marinatos describes the objects of that excavation and reports in detail the circumstances under which this idol of the goddess was found. In his interpretation the goddess is wearing three poppy capsules on her head. He therefore calls the idol both the "Poppy Goddess" and "Patroness of Healing". In addition to the work of Marinatos, the dissertation written for the University of Athens by Stylianos Alexiou of the Museum of Heraklion is also concerned with the idol and with "Minoan goddesses with raised hands" in general. The name 'poppy'[Papaver ] includes a genus of poppy plants [Papaveraceae ], the most common of which are known as: 1. Papaver somniferum L. and 2. Papaver rhoeas L. The capsules of the first species are notched towards the end of the flowering period. After drying in the sun, the oozing juice is collected with a spoon (or with the finger in earlier times) and, depending on the particular region of cultivation, is made into loaves (Opium cakes) of various shapes which exhibit that superior medicament, opium. The second species (P. rhoeas L.) flowers profusely in cultivated and uncultivated fields during the spring, forming a wonderful red-green carpet out of the beautiful red blossoms and the encircling green. It is used as a medicament as well. A careful examination of this Minoan idol leads, in my opinion, to pharmacognostically significant conclusions which I hold worthy of being communicated. After we returned from Crete, we relayed our remarks concerning the notching of the poppy capsules and the extraction of the juice to Prof. Marinatos, the authority and investigator of ancient Crete and its culture. We take this opportunity to thank Prof. Marinatos. We welcome the fact that Marinatos shares our observations in his explanation of a plate of the idol in his recently published work "Crete and Mycenaean Hellas". When the opportunity arises I shall also mention some aspects of other finds excavated by Marinatos, the conclusions of which I leave to the archaeologists to draw. Before I set forth my observations, I consider it practical to demonstrate what I regard as indispensable for the foundation of my view and for understanding the conclusions which we have drawn. Therefore, I shall summarize: 1. The history of the poppy and the knowledge (at that time) of extracting the juice (opium) and its use in antiquity. 2. The statements on the use of opium as an intoxicating agent. 3. The Minoan goddess "with raised hands".
 1. The History of the Poppy; Extraction of the Juice; Manufacture and Use of Opium in Antiquity The poppy plant and its sleep-inducing qualities were already known in antiquity. It was viewed as a magical or poisonous plant. The ancient Greeks portrayed Hypnos, the god of sleep, Nyx (night) and Thanatos (death) wreathed with poppies or carrying poppies in their hands. Similarly, they also decorated statues of Apollo, Demeter, Aphrodite, Cybele and other gods, which either wear poppy wreaths on their heads or carry poppy bouquets with or without stalks of wheat in their hands. The fruit of the poppy with or without stalks of wheat can also be found in pictures, reliefs, vessels, coins and jewelry. It is reported that Demeter, in despair over the abduction of her daughter, ate of the poppy to forget her pain and sleep. The papaver growing wild in the fields became the symbol of this goddess. A bouquet of poppy and stalks of wheat is depicted on a ciste at Eleusis. Both symbolize abundance and fertility. The poppy was also sacred to Aphrodite. Hesiod reports that the poppy was brought for cultivation to a city near Corinth and that this city then received the name Mekone (from Gr. = poppy) because of its poppy crop in the surrounding area. This prehistoric name was later replaced by the name Sikyon. Homer reports that Gorgythion, suddenly robbed of life by Teukros's arrow, leaned his head to the side like a poppy full of seed, nodding in the garden: [Greek Quote] Sprengel likewise attributes to the juice of the poppy the grief-allaying anodyne mentioned by Homer , Gr. [nepenthes], which Helen mixes into Telemachus's wine so that he may forget his pain; she herself became acquainted with it through the Egyptian, Polydamna . Nicolas Monardes on the other hand considered it a form of hashish. In a lecture on nepenthes , E. Emmanuel investigated the various interpretations and inclined toward the opinion of Plutarch, Athenaios, Philostratos and others that the anodyne conceals nothing more than an allegorical reference to Helen's charm and grace, and is not actually some kind of medicament. Herodotus reports that the Scythians and Massagetae intoxicated themselves on the fumes of hemp seeds spread over hot stones. Thrasyas of Mantinea cites Theophrastus concerning the tradition that poppy juice brings about a quick and painless death. Hippocrates mentions the poppy in numerous passages concerning the concoction of pharmaceutical preparations. He distinguishes between the white, fire-red and black poppy. In terms of therapeutic efficacy he mentions the unripe (Gr.), the ripe (Gr.) and the baked (Gr.) poppy. He also frequently refers to meconium as an anaesthetizing and contracting agent, as well as a purgative. [To Be Continued] 

From Myth to Mind" The Poppy, Opium and Its Use in Late Minoan III Remarks on the Discovery of the Minoan Poppy Goddess Idol by P.G. Kritikos
 [Translation in Progress]

\4 Opium Afghanistan

Output dropped (3/4) sharply in 98. produces 2300 tons. Poopy rich provinces: Kandahar and Helmand. World output is 5000-5500 tons. Afghanistan opium production increased to 22000 tons in 1991. Reuters Sep 17 2000 NYT- Despite a 28% decline in production this year, Afghanistan remains by far the world's largest opium poppy supplier, the head of the UN drug agency said last week. Introducing an annual opium poppy survey, Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the program, attributed the drop from a record 4,581 tons in 1999 to 3,275 tons this year to a severe drought in poppy growing areas of Afghanistan. Arlacchi said his agency's program of developing alternative crops in Kandahar province had resulted in a 50 percent decrease in the harvest of opium, the raw material for heroin. Although such programs could work, he said at a news conference on Thursday, he is not optimistic about curbing the world's drug trade by cutting production in Afghanistan. "The reduction was mainly due to severe drought that ravaged the country," Arlacchi said. Pakistan now has almost 3 million heroin addicts, probably the largest addict population in the world, and Iran estimates it has about 1 million addicts, Arlacchi said. He said working with the country's ruling Taliban authorities was difficult. Also last week, Arlacchi met delegates from China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the U.S. on ways to curb Afghanistan's drug trade. They adopted a plan that calls for more border controls and for attempts to curb trade in chemicals needed to refine opium into heroin. Arlacchi praised Tajikistan, which has seized 800 kilograms of heroin in the past six months, as part of a program aided by his agency and Russian border guards. He said the amount was five times larger than what European nations seized in a year. U.N. Forsakes Effort to Curb Poppy Growth By Afghans By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 15 — Frustrated by declining support from Western donors and the indifference of the ruling Taliban, the United Nations is winding down efforts to persuade farmers in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium, to switch to alternative legal crops.
 Ghorak, Khakrez and Maiwand, three districts of Qandahar province where the United Nations set up pilot programs promoting alternative crops, have recorded decreases in poppy cultivation of at least 50 percent, according to the latest annual survey of the United Nations International Drug Control Program. "This demonstrates that the alternative development projects work very well," the program's executive director, Under Secretary General Pino Arlacchi, said here. Similar programs in Bolivia and Peru, he noted, led to sharp declines there in the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make cocaine. But despite United Nations efforts to convince Afghan farmers to
 switch to wheat and other food crops in return for compensatory improvements in their lives, Mr. Arlacchi said, "Afghanistan remains by far the largest opium supplier in the world." Now, with United Nations funding running out and opium still Afghanistan's leading cash crop, the pilot projects will end this year, Mr. Arlacchi said, "given lack of financial and political support."
 Afghanistan's production of opium, the essential raw ingredient of heroin, was estimated at just over 3,600 tons this year, a decline from the record 5,100 tons in 1999. But the drop was caused mainly by a severe drought in southern Afghanistan and not by any effort by the Taliban to make peasants grow something other than opium poppies. A previous decree that farmers reduce their areas under opium cultivation by one-third has been widely ignored by the farmers and the Taliban authorities. Half of Afghanistan's opium is consumed as heroin by addicts in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, Mr. Arlacchi said. The rest is smuggled out to heroin markets in Europe, usually via Turkey and the Balkans. Afghanistan planted nearly 203,000 acres in opium poppies this year, a slight decline from last year, again apparently because of bad weather. United Nations officials hoped that the drought might encourage some farmers to revert to traditional crops. But the poor harvest may leave indebted farmers with no choice but to keep raising opium. Opium growing is encouraged by Afghanistan's rugged, often remote terrain and a long-running civil war that has bred lawlessness and defiance of authority. Afghan farmers can earn about $14 per pound of opium, considerably more than they do from other crops, United Nations officials say. Roughly 10 pounds of raw opium are used to produce 1 pound of heroin. At the consuming end, the cost of a pound of uncut heroin in Europe or the United States can exceed $40,000. Opium poppies are grown in 22 of Afghanistan's 32 provinces, but 6 provinces in the south account for 92 percent of the opium producing area. Moreover, 97 percent of this land is irrigated, proof that precious water is diverted to opium poppies at the expense of other crops. The Taliban, a militant Islamic movement that fought its way into power, controls an estimated 91 percent of the Afghan villages visited by United Nations surveyors, compared with 9 percent controlled by opposition forces in the north. But the Taliban's territory contains 96 percent of the country's opium poppy fields, up from about 90 percent last year. Mr. Arlacchi visited Afghanistan three years ago and secured assurances of cooperation from the Taliban, which considers drug use contrary to Islamic precepts, at least in theory. Since then, he said, "There was no substantial improvement in our relationship." The United Nations drug control office will continue its annual survey of Afghanistan's opium cultivation and harvest yield, conducted by Afghan nationals who have been able to move about the country and interview opium growers and local officials. The United Nations has also encouraged a cordon by Afghanistan's neighbors — Pakistan, Iran, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and China — to block or intercept drug smugglers. Russian border guards have been deployed along Tadjikistan's porous frontier with Afghanistan. And Iran, which has an increasing drug problem, has stationed 20,000 police officers on its Afghan border, Mr. Arlacchi said. He said he believed that alternative development was an ideal solution for the world's illegal drug problem. But the "emergency" solution in the shorter term, he said, was for Afghanistan's neighbors to strengthen their security belt and for Western countries to reduce the demand for heroin.


\5 Opium poppy

The opium poppy is one of the many types of poppy which originated in the far East but are now cultivated in many parts of the world. This annual plant reaches a maximum height of 80 cm and has long, blue-green, attractively shaped leaves. It blooms in July and August, producing magnificent lilac, red or white flowers.

The intoxicating effect of the plant was recorded thousands of years ago on Sumerian clay tablets. Hypocrites knew its dual effect well. He recommends poppy wine as a remedy but issues a grave warning against the abuse of the milky juice of the plant. This juice is obtained from the ovaries before the fruit is ripe. Cut are made in the wall of the fruit with multiple-bladed knives so that the white juice runs out. After drying in the air, a brown mass is left. From this brown mass, which is opium, morphine, codeine, papaverin and noskapin are prepared. Each of these alkaloids has a specific effect that is used in medicine. Heroin is an addictive drug derived from morphine.

The cultivation of the opium poppy is allowed under strict supervision in certain selected countries, but it is also cultivated illegally in many others for the production of opium, morphine and heroine. Opium products are hallucinogenic, addictive and subject to the regulations of the International Opium Law.

The most important active substance in opium is morphine. It was isolated for the first time in May 1804 and used as an analgesic in serious surgical nnterventions. However, it is now used less and less because the patient can exhibit withdrawal symptoms after the operation.

The plant can still be used safely, nevertheless. The ripe seeds are used as a decoration and flavour-intensifier in bread or pressed cold to give poppy seed oil. This valuable vegetable oil is rich in lecithin, which helps to lower the cholesterol level.


\6 Opium Processing

Heroin's long journey to America's streets begins with the planting of the seed of an opium poppy. The flower's botanical name is papaver somniferum. The Sumerians called it Hul Gil, the 'flower of joy.' 

The flower is grown mainly by impoverished farmers on small plots in remote regions of the world. It flourishes in dry, warm climates and the vast majority of opium poppies are grown in a narrow, 4,500-mile stretch of mountains extending across southern Asia from Turkey through Pakistan and Laos. Heroin is also increasingly becoming an export from Latin America, notably Colombia. 

About three months after the poppy seeds are planted, brightly-colored flowers bloom at the tips of greenish, tubular stems. As the petals fall away, they expose an egg-shaped seed pod. Inside the pod is an opaque, milky sap. This is opium in its crudest form. 

The sap is extracted by slitting the pod vertically in parallel strokes with a special curved knife. As the sap oozes out, it turns darker and thicker, forming a brownish-black gum. A farmer collects the gum with a scraping knife, bundles it into bricks, cakes or balls and wraps them in a simple material such as plastic or leaves. 

Then the opium enters the black market. A merchant or broker buys the packages for transport to a morphine refinery. "Most traffickers do their morphine refining close to the poppy fields, since compact morphine bricks are much easier to smuggle than bundles of pungent, jelly-like opium," writes Alfred W. McCoy in <i>The Politics of Heroin</i>. 

At the refinery, which may be little more than a rickety laboratory equipped with oil drums and shrouded in a jungle thicket, the opium is mixed with lime in boiling water. A precipitate of organic waste sinks to the bottom. On the surface a white band of morphine forms. This is drawn off, reheated with ammonia, filtered and boiled again until it is reduced to a brown paste. 

Poured into molds and dried in the sun, it is now morphine base, which has the consistency of dense modeling clay. Morphine base is smokable in a pipe - a practice introduced by the Dutch in the 17th century - or ready for further processing into heroin. 

The first to process heroin was C.R. Wright, an English researcher who unwittingly synthesized heroin (diacetylmorphine) in 1874 when he boiled morphine and a common chemical, acetic anhydride, over a stove for several hours. The modern technique entails a complicated series of steps in a good laboratory. 

In his book, Opium A History, Martin Booth describes the process: "First, equal quantities of morphine and acetic anhydride are heated in a glass or enamel-lined container for six hours at 85ƒC. The morphine and the acid combine to form impure diacetylmorphine. Second, water and chloroform are added to the solution to precipitate impurities. The solution is drained and sodium carbonate added to make the heroin solidify and sink. Third, the heroin is filtered out of the sodium carbonate solution with activated charcoal and purified with alcohol. [Fourth,] this solution is gently heated to evaporate the alcohol and leave heroin, which may be purified further 

Heroin No. 4 Purification in the fourth stage, involving ether and hydrochloric acid, is notoriously risky. "In the hands of a careless chemist the volatile ether gas may ignite and produce a violent explosion that can level a clandestine laboratory," writes McCoy. The final product is a fluffy, white powder known in the trade as number four heroin.  

When the heroin emerges from laboratories in places such as Bangkok or Hong Kong, it enters a multi-layered chain of distribution. Top brokers usually deal in bulk shipments of 20 to 100 kilos. A broker in New York might divide a bulk shipment into wholesale lots of 1 to 10 kilos for sale to underlings. A kilo of Southeast Asian heroin in 1997 costs $100,000 to $120,000, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Oddly, for a shadowy commerce, the one-kilo bricks are brightly packaged and imprinted with brands worthy of Madison Avenue. Heroin originating in Burma's Shan State, for example, sports a red-lettered logo, "Double UO Globe Brand", framed by a pair of lions. 

By the time heroin is peddled on city streets in small "bags" at $5 to $100, its value has ballooned more than ten- fold since its arrival in the United States. 

Not many years ago virtually all the heroin sold on America's streets was so heavily diluted that it was rarely more than 10 percent pure. Purity has risen sharply in the mid-'90's - routinely hitting 50 to 60 percent - as dealers have tried to expand their market beyond those addicts who inject heroin into their veins with hypodermic needles. Higher purity means "you can inhale it, you can smoke it, you can get high without the threat of AIDS or those nasty intravenous needles." says DEA administrator Thomas Constantine, in a recent <i>Washington Post</i> story. 

Greater purity also reflects a relatively high level of worldwide produc tion. Last year the illicit output of raw opium amounted to a record 4,300 tons, an increase of almost 1000 tons since 1992, according to U.S. estimates. Burma's 1996 share of more than 2500 tons made it, far and away, the world leader. 

By an age-old rule of thumb, every 10 tons of raw opium reduces to one ton of heroin. In other words, the worldwide opium output in 1996 translates into 430 tons of heroin. About half of that is destined for the United States. 
 No. 3, grayish lumpy, 40% pure. 
 White dragon pearl, chalky-white 50% pure. 
 No. 4, powdery, used mostly in the west, 90-99% pure. 
 Double U-O Globe brand.


\7 SMOKING OPIUM

Opium is the name for the brown waxy exudation from the unripe seed capsules of Papaver somniferum. Opium is a combination of chemicals, not a chemical name in itself, as someone so rightly pointed out in Usenet recently. It's active ingredients are morphine, thebaine, codeine, papaverine and several others besides. Yield and proportions of opiates vary between individual plants, crops, varieties, areas. Other parts of the poppy plant ( stems, leaves ) produce a latex which dries and resembles opium, but the quality of the latexes from the other parts of the plant are not near as high. Opium is described as a stimulant narcotic. Historically it has been prescribed as a painkiller, for inflammation unaccompanied by dyspnoea, in typhus, typhoid and smallpox etc. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT OPIUM IS AN ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO OVERDOSE ON OPIUM- BE CAREFUL! Smoking it regularly can increase your tolerance- faster than you think. The good thing about growing your own opium is that usually by the time you think you've picked up a habit, you run out. The other good thing about growing opium is that it's a fiddly, low yield job, particularly using the easier to get, purple variety. You'd only do it if you were fairly dedicated to having a smoke of O. In the quantities it takes to pull a reasonable crop, it is way too much work for the money or the buzz...not to mention the risk. The best way to smoke O is in a bong. Assume you've cut and grown your own O: store it in small flakes in an airtight bag, or just dry the heads you wiped it on and smoke them. You can mix O with tobacco or pot, or smoke it on its own. O burns at a higher temperature than pot or tobacco, so keep your lighter at its hottest. Initially pack small cones as O will keep burning long after your tobacco or pot has gone out: you can waste quite a bit without realising it. The taste is a bit of a shock at first, but the smell of the smoke is a delightful sweetish pungent scent. If you've ever read anything about smoking opium you'll recognise the smell immediately... My first smoke of O, some years ago now, reminded me of nothing so much as the first time I got stoned on pot. I grinned a lot. I snuggled with a friend as we watched TV. The best thing about an O stone is the lack of paranoia, and it's a stunning sex drug which can prolong orgasm etc. It's also a great painkiller, given its history of legitimate prescription that's hardly surprising. As to the amounts you'd start with, it's best left to the individual really, start with a matchead size portion of opium per person and take it from there. The effects of O are fairly immediate, making it easier to calculate an appropriate smoking dose as opposed to say, dropping acid. It is, of course, much easier to overdose via oral dose of opium, which is why I've recommended the smoking route. The effects of O last 2-3 hours, depending on body size, tolerance, how much you've smoked. I've absolutely no idea as to how long traces stay in your bloodstream. Side effects- well, you sleep well, and next day you experience a certain amount of lassitude if you've had a fair bit, but that's all I'm aware of. I've heard it can cause nausea and constipation and have experienced neither. Antidotes to opium poisoning are: stomach pumps, coffee enemas, 1/6 grain apomorphine hydrochloride hypodermically, emetic of zinc sulphate, 5 grains or so of potassium permanganate in a half pint of water. All sounds most unpleasant- just don't take too much in the first place. You can purify opium further into its constituent alkaloids- then take the morphine and turn it into smack if you so desire. Wouldn't bother really, opium is a much more pleasant experience overall than heroin. And the skills you'd require are well out of the range of those described in this FAQ. It IS possible though, if you need more information you may well find it at http://www.hyperreal.org. And yes, I believe its possible to get out of it on opium seeds, which CAN contain ( depending on the seed source, age and your luck ) absolutely minute traces of alkaloids. Positively microscopic traces...I estimate, however, that it would be cheaper and far less hassle to go out and buy a beer..........you'd need that many seeds .......and loads of determination. The presence of alkaloids in opium seeds has been a hotly debated thread on alt.drugs.chemistry for quite some time...check http://www.dejanews.com index to find out about practically everyone's views on this subject.


\8 Opium tea

 Preparing

 Poppy tea:Make a hot tea from *any* part of
 the plant Papaver somniferum. The seed pods are
 by far the strongest, however, effects can be
 gained from using the leaves, the stems, and the
 roots, as well - in lower concetrations. For
 normal dried P. somniferum pods, remove the
 seeds, then crush them (20 pods) (powderize if
 possible) and let seep in hot water (don't want
 to put them in water that is boiling, but add
 boiling water to it - scald the pods - don't
 boil them.

 Drink the tea.

 Effect is FAR MORE than codeine, hydrocodone,
 etc... A little "trick" is also taking 400mg.
 of Cimetidine (TAGAMET) along with the tea -
 this prevents the breakdown of the *goodies*,
 thus effect is much stronger, and with a good
 cup of tea, will last all day.

 Addiction to poppy tea is not noted for many
 months of at least 2X a day use. Also, sources
 for these pods (other than growing your own) are
 shrinking. Shame...best cough suppressant in
 this world. If you grow your own poppies, it is
 definitely inexpensive.

 Aquireing

 Poppy seeds are very common. Unfortunately,
 most,if not all, of the seeds you purchase in
 seed stores are tainted with a poison so you can
 not take advantage to their natural properties.
 There are seed companies that do sell them
 untainted. The best seed company I have found,
 and used since 1972, is the Redwood City Seed
 Company, P.O. Box 361, Redwood City, CA 94064,
 USA. They also have a web site at

http://www.ecoseeds.com/.

 LAWS:

 Most states have "poppy straw" and "all parts of
 the opium poppy" Scheduled. However, Jim
 Hogshire, author of OPIUM FOR THE MASSES has
 found a loop hole - the laws do don't define
 WHAT the "opium poppy" is - what species. So
 the law is basically bullshit, if you have a
 competent attourney. Growing poppies is legal,
 as far as it is not for drug production. You
 can purchase dried pods and stems at most craft
 outlets (usually high priced and low potency).
 Variants of the P. somniferum plant are much
 better:

 Dosage

 Papaver somniferum "hens and chickens" dose: 5-8
 pods.
 Papaver somniferum "Turkish Giants" dose: 3-5
 pods.
 Papaver somniferum (normal) dose: 15-30 pods.


\9 Opium addiction

In 1972 brain researchers from Johns Hopkins University made a puzzling discovery that would illuminate scientists' understanding of drug addiction. They found that the human brain's neurons had specific receptor sites for opiate drugs: opium, heroin, codeine and morphine. But then there was the obvious question. Why would nature put in our brains a receptor for a plant? After all, humans beings didn't evolve over millions of years eating opium or shooting heroin.

The scientists reasoned there must be some other function for these receptors sites. They soon figured out that the active ingredient in all these opiates - morphine - had a chemical structure similar to endorphins, a class of chemicals present in the brain . Endorphins are feel-good chemicals naturally-manufactured in the brain when the body experiences pain or stress. They are called the natural opiates of the body.

Endorphins flood the space between nerve cells and usually inhibit neurons from firing, thus creating an analgesic effect. On a lower level they can excite neurons as well. When endorphins do their work, the organism feels good, high, or euphoric, and feels relief from pain [analgesia]. Logically, endorphin levels go up when a person exercises, goes into labor, or is stressed out. Although they seem to be triggered by stress, endorphins can do more than relieve pain, they actually make us feel good.

Like an evil twin, the morphine molecule locks onto the endorphin-receptor sites on nerve endings in the brain and begins the succession of events that leads to euphoria or analgesia. 

This imposter is more powerful than the body's own endorphins because the organism can actually control how much of the feel-good chemical hits the brain. Since we are all pleasure-seeking organisms, the motivation to self-administer such a drug is easy to understand. The drawback, of course, is addiction.

The first intravenous injection of heroin can be extremely unpleasant, causing vomiting and nausea. Often this experience is enough to scare someone away, but social and psychological pressures may motivate a person to keep trying. After a few more uses, the beneficial effects are obvious. Some users have distinguished between the "rush" and the "high." The rush lasts only one or two minutes and is said to be caused by the injected heroin bathing the brain before it gets distributed by the bloodstream and changed into a more useable form of morphine. The rush is often described as a heightened sexual orgasm, and a great relief of tension, which pervades the abdomen. After the rush, the high lasts for four or five hours and is caused by the morphine diffusing from the bloodstream into the brain. It is described as a warm, drowsy, cozy state. Addicts report a profound sense of satisfaction, as though all needs were fulfilled. There is also a pleasant state of mild dizziness that is not as impairing as alcohol's effects, and a sense of 'distancing' or apathy toward whatever is going on in the environment.

Some addicts lose the effect of euphoria, and use heroin only for relief of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Since all opiates produce cross-tolerance, the use of codeine, opium or morphine can relieve the withdrawal symptoms of heroin.

The mechanism of addiction is still not fully understood. Generally speaking, addiction is a socially-derived word that refers to a person's compulsive use of a drug in spite of being harmed by it. Dependence and tolerance are conditions that can lead to addiction.

Dependence occurs when, after a constant supply of the opiate, the brain shows adaptation, or a change in its circuitry. When that drug is taken away, neurons that have long been inhibited start pumping out neurotransmitters again. This imbalance of chemicals in the brain interacts with the nervous system to produce the classic opiate withdrawal symptoms: nausea, muscle spasms, cramps, anxiety, fever, diarrhea.

Tolerance, another poorly understood phenomenon, describes the need for a drug user to administer larger and larger doses of the drug to achieve the same psychoactive effect. A general hypothesis says that when the body's chemical equilibrium is upset, as in habitual drug-taking, the body sets up oppositional processes to restore itself. More of the drug is needed to overcome these efficient corrective processes. Tolerance occurs with regular use of almost all psychoactive drugs.

It is not surprising that other drugs of abuse mimic or interfere with naturally-occurring neurotransmitters as well. Nicotine for example mimics a common neurotransmitter in the brain called acetylcholine which affects skeletal and heart muscle function. 

Cocaine and amphetamines cause an abundance of another neurotransmitter, dopamine, to stay in the cleft between nerve cells, stimulating them. The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, is mildly hallucinogenic and probably interacts with many chemical pathways.


 The opiates like heroin are the drugs that cause the most classic set of withdrawal symptoms. About eight to twelve hours after the last heroin use, an addict's eyes begin to tear and he/she starts to experience flu-like symptoms: sneezing, weakness, depression, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. The symptoms increase in severity over two to three days. Within a week to 10 days the illness is over. The phrase 'cold turkey' probably comes from the appearance of goose bumps all over the body, which resembles a plucked turkey. Muscle spasms in the legs produce kicking movements, and this may be the derivation of the expression 'kick the habit.'

In contrast to opiates, cocaine withdrawal is much less dramatic, characterized by sleep disturbances and depression. Some researchers believe that no real withdrawal syndrome exists for cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, and hallucinogens, since withdrawal symptoms appeared to be psychological rather than physical. At the opposite end of the spectrum are alcohol and barbiturates (downers). For reasons not fully understood by scientists, withdrawal from alcohol and barbiturates, both central nervous system depressants, can be fatal. 



By the turn of the century, the habit-forming properties of opium were well known. In an effort to eliminate the addictiveness of morphine, German pharmacists tinkered with its molecular structure. They invented a derivative called diacetylmorphine. The Bayer Company named it heroin and marketed it as less-addicting and less toxic alternative to morphine.

Heroin turned out to be 2 to 3 times more potent than morphine. It was in fact an already-metabolized version of morphine, so heroin had a more direct route to the brain than morphine itself. By the late 1920s heroin was the most widely abused opiate.


Edythe D. London, PhD., Director, National Institute of Drug Addiction Brain Imaging Center Encyclopedia of Drugs & Alcohol, Jerome Jaffe, editor The Hardest Drug by John Kaplan Introduction to Psychopharmacology


\10 Opium/Heroin Route 98

Along the route of opium to western Europe follows HIV-1. Burma Kunming Guiyang Chongqing Chendu Lanzhou Xining Urumqi Hazakhstan. 

AIDS subtypes: B found in U.S.Europe queers & junkies C Burma to NW China E heterosexuals found in Thailand, S.E.Asia. UN soldiers. Yunnan has 4/5 of China's HIV/AIDS cases.


\11 Opium/opiates Source of natural opium that contains over 20 alkaloids. It is the dried latex from the unripe seed capsules. Its main alkaloid constituents are morphine, noscapine, and codine used mainly as an analgesic. 

Chandu in SIN is prepared opium that has been processed (into little balls) with dross (pipe residue) for smoking
 Laudanum is a tincture of opium with water and alchohol.


\12 Opium Eaters

W.H.Auden Branwell Bronte, brother of Charlotte and Emily. Elizabeth B. Browning, Poet, Williams S. Burroughs, Harvard, beatnik,traveled writer. Byron Lewis Caroll Jean Cocteau Samuel Taylor Coleridge Joseph Conrad Wilkie Collins  Charles Dickens Sigmund Freud George IV    Graham Greene Keats Florence Nightingale Thomas De Quincy Pablo Picaso Rimbaud Shelley Arthur Symons Van Gogh Oscar Wilde


\13 Cultivation of Opium in India

Now a profitable export for the Indian government, opium has a long history in Asia, inextricable from the colonial subjugation of the region, by the British East India Company and later the British empire. All photographs are Copyright © Pablo Bartholomew, and may NOT be used in any context or form whatsoever without express written permission.

Traditional welcome in western parts of Rajasthan, the desert state: Opium dissolved in water, offered by the host in a cupped palm. For hundreds of years the opium fields of North India have provided medicinal and narcotic solace to millions of people. In villages of Rajasthan, the traditonal offering of opium water to guests survives to this day. Opium has long been given to babies suffering from diarrhea and other infant maladies and to the elederly to relieve suffering in their final hours.

In the early days of British rule, under the East India Company, opium production was discouraged. In 1773, India's first Govenor General, Warren Hastings, recognized that opium was harmful and opposed increasing its production. However, he encouraged the control of opium by the company hoping that by monopolizing and limiting the supply its consumption could be controlled.


Monkeys in the Ghazipur factory compound are addicted to the opium in the factory effluents coming out of the distilling plant.
 By the end of the century, however, huge quantities of Indian opium, grown in Bengal, were being shipped to China, where addiction had reached epidemic proportions despite imperial edicts banning its import and consumption.

The crop export to China had long been a useful balancing item on the East India Company's trading account, one the British were not ready to give up.

The Chinese imposed a total ban on opium import and the export of silver, the currency accepted in exchange for the illicit substance. Trade moved from Canton to Macao where it grew unchecked.


Manaklal Singh, founder of the opium detoxification center near Jodhpur, with his hoardings warning against the danger of opium addiction, in the background.
 British traders would declare their legitimate cargo and leave the opium on board to be picked up by Chinese merchants.

The English traders' flagrant abuse of their trading privileges with China, enraged the imperial rulers. In the eighteenth century a commissioner seized and destroyed 20,000 chests of opium, and detained the entire foreign community, sparking the Opium Wars.

The British reacted violently, quashing China's Imperial army. England forced imperial rulers to sign what the Chinese refer to as the "unequal treaties". England was given "most favored nation" status and the territory of Hong Kong. Opium trade was still illegal but now there was no way of stopping it.

\14 Opium N.Korea

Impoverished North Korea is secretly running poppy farms nationwide to produce opium that it exports to earn hard currency, a defector said Monday. Comments by Hur Chang Girl, 47, support widely held suspicions that N.Korea has become involved in drug trafficking, as well as dollar counterfeiting, to bolster its flagging economy. "Each province in the North has its own opium farm,"' Hur said. "The Workers' Party controls the growing of opium and its export and uses the revenues as its operating funds." Hur said Party agents gather opium from about 10 farms in remote areas and prepare it for export at the Nanam Pharmaceutical Plant in the NE port city of Chungjin. 

The drug deals, he said, usually are made in intl waters. Past allegations of N.Korean drug trafficking indicated attempts at selling opium in Europe and Russia. Hur, a former military herbal doctor, and his 17-year-old daughter, Hur Gum Sun, defected to the South last month. They spoke at a news conference Monday after being debriefed by government intelligence agents. Several other recent defectors have said opium growing has become a state business in N.Korea.


\15 PCP

Sernyl was first developed in 1959 and used as an animal tranquilizer. A depressant that can be smoked, ingested, or injected. Hallucinogenic sprayed on other street drugs for enhancement.

ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ What is phencyclidine (PCP)? Phencyclidine ("angel dust") is a drug which was developed as a surgical anesthetic for humans in the late l950s. Because of its unusual and unpleasant side effects in human patients--delirium, extreme excitement, and visual disturbances--PCP was soon restricted to its only current legal use as a veterinary anesthetic and tranquilizer.
 What are PCP's effects? Effects of the drug vary according to dosage levels. Low doses may provide the usual releasing effects of many psychoactive drugs. A floaty euphoria is described, sometimes associated with a feeling of numbness (part of the drug's anesthetic effects). Increased doses produce an excited, confused intoxication, which may include any of the following: muscle rigidity, loss of concentration and memory, visual disturbances, delirium, feelings of isolation, convulsions, speech impairment, violent behavior, fear of death, and changes in users' perceptions of their bodies. Research shows that PCP seems to scramble the brain's internal stimuli, altering how users perceive and deal with their environment. Everyday activities like driving and even walking can be a task for PCP users.
 What makes PCP so dangerous?
 One danger of PCP intoxication is that it can produce violent and bizarre behavior even in people not otherwise prone to such behavior. Violent actions may be directed at themselves or others and often account for serious injuries or death. Bizarre behavior can lead to death through drownings, burns, falls from high places, and automobile accidents. More people die from accidents caused by the erratic and unpredictable behavior produced by the drug than from the drug's direct effect on the body. A temporary, schizophrenic-like psychosis, which and last for days or weeks, has also occurred in users of moderate or higher doses of the drug. During these episodes, users are excited, incoherent, and aggressive; or they may be quite the opposite: uncommunicative, depressed, and withdrawn. Paranoia, a state in which the user feels persecuted, often accompanies this condition.
 How do users get PCP? Nearly all PCP in today's drug culture is made illicitly since it is easily synthesized in bootleg laboratories. Because of its bad reputation on the street, dealers often sell it as mescaline or other drugs more attractive to users. Users can never be sure what they're buying. Street PCP comes in various forms:
 1.as the powdered "angel dust", 2.as tablets, as crystals, 3.and in pills named "hogs" or "Peace Pills".
 
 Smoking the dust, usually mixed with marijuana, parsley, and mint leaves, has become the preferred method of PCP use. The smoker can control the drug's effects better than the pill taker can. Is PCP a big problem?
 Statistics tell us the PCP use is on the rise. In the l960s and early l970s PCP was not very popular with the drug community because of its unpleasant effects, but now it is becoming a drug of choice. More and more hospital emergency rooms and drug crisis centers are seeing cases of PCP-induced panic and overdoses.

Rewarding actions of phencyclidine and related drugs in nucleus accumbens shell and frontal cortex by Carlezon WA Jr; Wise RA Ctr for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Dept of Psy, Concordia Univ, Montreal, Can.
 ABSTRACT: Rats learned to lever-press when such behavior was reinforced by microinjections of phencyclidine (PCP) directly into the ventromedial (shell) region of nucleus accumbens, indicating that the drug has direct rewarding actions in that region. Separate groups of rats learned to lever-press when reinforced with microinjections of dizoclipine (MK-801) or 3-((+/-)2-carboxypiperazin-4yl)propyl-1-phosphate (CPP), drugs known to block NMDA receptor function but not dopamine uptake, into the same region. Each drug was ineffective or markedly less effective when injected at a slightly more dorsal and lateral site in the core of nucleus accumbens. Self-administration of PCP, MK-801, or CPP directly into nucleus accumbens was not altered by co-infusion of a dose of the dopamine antagonist sulpiride that effectively blocked intracranial self-administration of the dopamine uptake inhibitor nomifensine, suggesting that the rewarding actions of the NMDA receptor antagonists are not dopamine-dependent. Rats also developed lever-pressing habits when PCP, MK-801, and CPP were each microinjected directly into frontal cortex, a region previously associated with the rewarding actions of cocaine but not nomifensine. Thus nucleus accumbens and frontal cortex are each potential substrates for the rewarding properties of PCP and related drugs, and the ability of these drugs to disrupt NMDA receptor function seems sufficient to account for their rewarding actions. When considered with independent evidence, the present results suggest a model of drug reward within which the critical event is inhibition of medium spiny neurons in nucleus accumbens.
 
 Phencyclidine in the social interaction test: an animal model of schizophrenia with face and predictive validity by Sams-Dodd F. Pharmacological Research, H. Lundbeck A/S, Valby, Denmark.
 ABSTRACT: Phencyclidine (PCP) is a hallucinogenic drug that can mimic several aspects of the schizophrenic symptomatology in healthy volunteers. In a series of studies PCP was administered to rats to determine whether it was possible to develop an animal model of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The rats were tested in the social interaction test and it was found that PCP dose-dependently induces stereotyped behaviour and social withdrawal, which may correspond to certain aspects of the positive and negative symptoms, respectively. The effects of PCP could be reduced selectively by antipsychotic drug treatment, whereas drugs lacking antipsychotic effects did not alleviate the PCP-induced behaviours. Together these findings indicate that PCP effects in the rat social interaction test may be a model of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia with face and predictive validity and that it may be useful for the evaluation of novel antipsychotic compounds.


\16 Piracetam

Piracetam is a member of the class of drugs known as nootropics. Nootropics are known commonly as cognitive enhancers. It is similar in molecular structure to the amino acid pyroglutamate. Piracetam & pyroglutamate have the same base chemical structure, the 2-oxo-pyrrolidine, but they differ by a side chain. Pyroglutamate is 2-oxo-pyrrolidine carboxylic acid, and piracetam is 2-oxo-pyrrolidine acetamide.
  Piracetam was created about 30 years ago by UCB labs. Other trade names include: Avigilen, Cerebroforte, Cerebrospan, Cetam, Dinagen, Encefalux, Encetrop,Euvifor, gabacet, Genogris, Memo-Puren, Nootron, Nootrop, Nootropil, Nootropyl, Normabrain,Norzetam, Pirroxil, Psycotron, Stimucortex, and UCB-6215.
 Similar drugs. A number of drugs are related to Piracetam. These include oxiracetam, pramiracetam, etiracetam, nefiracetam, aniracetam and rolziracetam. These have additional structural analogues that behave in a similar manor.[4] Unless otherwise indicated, the information contained in this FAQ is about Piracetam itself. In subsquent versions, I will expand this FAQ to cover these other drugs as well.
  What are the reported benefits of Piracetam? Piracetam is reported to enhance cognitive functions of the brain. It is said to enhanced memory, attention, intelligence, etc. It is commonly known as a smart drug for this reason. There is very little empirical evidence to support this claim in healthy individuals. Piracetam is believed to increase blood flow between the two hemispheres of the brain. It's also been reported to protect brain tissue from various physical and chemical abrasions such as alcohol damage.
 One study described the benefits of piracetam in this way: "In animal models and in healthy volunteers, the drug improves the efficiency of the higher telencephalic functions of the brain involved in cognitive processes such as learning and memory. The pharmacology of piracetam is unusual because it protects against various physical and chemical insults applied to the brain. It facilitates learning and memory in healthy animals and in animals whose brain function has been compromised, and it enhances interhemispheric transfer of information via callosal transmission. At the same time, even in relatively high dosages it is devoid of any sedative, analeptic or autonomic activities." [7]
 What have medical studies found? Alzheimer's disease Abstract: Preclinical research suggests that piracetam (a nootropic drug) may improve cognitive functions, but previous studies have failed to demonstrate a clear benefit for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We report a 1-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study with a high dose of piracetam (8 g/d per os) in 33 ambulant patients with early probable AD. Thirty subjects completed the 1-year study. No improvement occurred in either group, but our results support the hypothesis that long-term administration of high doses of piracetam might slow the progression of cognitive deterioration in patients with AD. The most significant differences concerned the recall of pictures series and recent incident and remote memory. The drug was well-tolerated.[6]
 How does Piracetam work? Theories This continues to be somewhat of a mystery. No definitive mechanism of action has been found. A study conducted in 1994 reviewed previously published literature from 1965-1992 (407 references). An excerpt: "We believe that the effect of the racetams [[Piracetam and others mentioned in 1.1]] is due to a potentiation of already present neurotransmission and that much evidence points in the direction of a modulated ion flux by, e.g., potentiated calcium influx through non-L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels, potentiated sodium influx through alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor gated channels or voltage-dependent channels or decreases in potassium efflux. Effects on carrier mediated ion transport are also possible."[4]
 "How piracetam exerts its effects on memory disorders is still under investigation, although among other proposed mechanisms of action it is thought to facilitate central nervous system efficiency of cholinergic neurotransmission. Results from trials involving elderly patients with senile cognitive disorders have been equivocal, as have the results obtained when piracetam has been combined with acetylcholine precursors." [7]
 How it doesn't work It has been determined the Piracetam does not work though many common metabolic pathways.
 "No affinity for the alpha 1-, alpha 2-, beta-, muscarinic, 5-hydroxytryptamine-, dopamine, adenosine-A1-, mu-opiate, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) (except for nefiracetam (GABAA)), benzodiazepine and glutamate receptors has been found."[4]
 3.3 Are there side effects? No significant side effects of been observed. Piracetam is remarkably well tolerated in humans through a wide range of doses. [7] Women who are breast feeding or pregnant should not use this drug. Piracetam may cause stomach upset as well. The effects of this drug are largely subjective. Some of the effects may be undesirable.
 4.1 What is a typical dose? Dosages form 400mg to 4800mg are considered safe. Some literature recommend an 'attack dose' in the range of 1600mg to 2400mg for the first few days to initiate a response in people seeking cognitive enhancing effects. Start with a normal dose like 800mg. It is likely that you will feel the affects at this level. Then try and attack dose if you feel it necessary.
 Some individuals report that they could feel strong effects at 800mg on the first day. On subsequent days at the same dosage the effects were not as noticeable. It is unclear whether maximum benefits are obtained from daily use over time or if occasional use has benefits. If possible work your doctor.
 4.2 Does piracetam interact with other drugs? Piracetam is said to increases the effects of alcohol and amphetamines. No other drug interactions have been noted. It is recommended that alcohol be avoided as one of the reported effects of Piracetam is increased flow of blood to the brain which would increase damage and intoxication.
 5. Availability 5.1 What is the legal status of piracetam? This will vary form nation to nation. It is generally available through mail order. Legal issues exist. This section is organized by country.
 United States Piracetam has not been approved by the FDA for use in the United States. This does not mean that it is illegal. It is legal to use, posses, and import Piracetam on a 'personal use' bases. Overseas distributors have reported that they have very little trouble shipping to the US. What follows is a large excerpt taken from a text on the FDA web site http://www.fda.gov/. I think it covers the various elements of legality like 'serious conditions' and 'personal use'.
 "For many years FDA has permitted individuals to bring into the country small "personal-use" quantities of drugs sold abroad but not approved in the U.S. -- provided that the drugs do not pose unreasonable or significant safety risks, that their use will not be commercialized, and that they are for a serious condition for which there is no satisfactory treatment available in this country. The policy was designed to allow people to import through their personal baggage small quantities of medicines they may have been treated with while traveling abroad, and to allow individuals with serious conditions the ability to import through the mail personal-use quantities of unapproved drugs that they feel might be helpful in treating their conditions."
 "Personal-use quantities are generally considered to be amounts for a patient's treatment for three months or less. Imports involving larger quantities may not be permitted as they lend themselves to commercialization."
 "In recent years this policy has gained greater attention because of the plight of people with AIDS who have sought to import unapproved therapies from abroad. These include importations brought into the country though personal baggage carried back from a trip to another country or through mail shipments."
 "Persons with additional questions about importation of drugs for personal use should consult with the local FDA district office or the Imports Operations Branch in Rockville, MD at (301) 443-6553."
 United Kingdom I realize the UK policy has changed recently. I will update the section soon. If you have information regarding the availability or Piracetam in the UK please forward it to me. As I understand it now, you can import it from a foreign source.
 Mexico Piracetam is a prescription medication in Mexico. I'd imagine that it is as easily obtainable as any other medication. Which is pretty easy. If you have more information again please let me know.

more information? http://www.subnet.co.uk/alpha/aframe.htm http://www.qhi.co.uk/ http://www.cris.com/~Nubrain/


\17 Poppers and AIDS

AIDS; Virus or Drug Induced? Once a week, Dr. Harry Haverkos puts on the white uniform of the Public Health Service, and goes to work at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Rockville, Maryland. It is one of over 40 divisions comprising the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Haverkos, 43, is the director of the Office of AIDS at NIDA, and although he is a cautious man, not given to dramatic statements, he is persistent, and for over ten years he has been pursuing a line of inquiry about AIDS that has received remarkably little attention considering its potential importance.

Since 1983, when he was working at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta (CDC), and began analyzing the early data on AIDS, he has been intrigued by the possible role of a widely abused drug called poppers. A nitrite­based inhalant, it just may be a missing key to the endless medical puzzle called AIDS. In particular, Haverkos believes that the drug may be the mysterious cause of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), the rare form of cancer that, at the outset of the epidemic, almost defined AIDS. 'It's clear that HIV alone can't explain Kaposi's,' he said. 'There has to be something else' (Haverkos, 1994).

Haverkos's career with the Public Health Service was launched just as AIDS was discovered. A Notre Dame graduate, he attended the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, and did his intern residency at Akron City Hospital. Then, in July, 1981, he joined the CDC in Atlanta. Something new and strange was happening in the homosexual communities on both the East and West Coasts. Young homosexuals, apparently in good health, were coming down with previously rare diseases. One month earlier, five case of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia had been reported by Dr. Michael Gottlieb in Los Angeles (CDC, 1981a).

'The patients did not know each other and had no known common contacts or knowledge of sexual partners who had had similar diseases', Dr. Gottlieb reported. 'The 5 did not have comparable histories of sexually transmitted disease... Two of the 5 reported having frequent homosexual contacts with various partners. All 5 reported using inhalant drugs...'.

One month later, on July 3, 1981, there was a second report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC, 1981b). By now there were 15 cases of pneumocystis, and 26 cases of Kaposi's sarcoma were added to the list. The report pointed out that KS was normally very rare, found among elderly men and usually manifesting a 'chronic clinical course'. In these new cases the 'fulminant clinical course' seemed quite different. 'The occurrence of this number of KS cases during a 30­month period among young homosexual men is considered highly unusual', the report added. This time there was no mention of drug use.

On the same day, however, there was an article by Lawrence K. Altman in the New York Times (Altman, 1981). Headlined 'Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals', this was probably the first article to appear in the national press about the condition that would later be called AIDS. The 41 cases had been found in New York and California. 'The cause of the outbreak is unknown, and there is as yet no evidence of contagion', Altman wrote. As before, none of the patients knew one another, and Dr. James Curran, at that point a 'spokesman' for the CDC, was reported as saying that 'the best evidence against contagion is that no cases have been reported to date outside the homosexual community or in women'.

Dr. Alvin Friedman­Kien of New York University Medical Center, who had reported many of these cases, told Altman that among nine of the 'victims' (a word that would later be abolished from AIDS reporting), he had found 'severe defects in their immunological systems', with their T­ and B­cell lymphocytes evidently malfunctioning. Most of these cases involved men who had had 'multiple and frequent sexual encounters with different partners', sometimes 'as many as ten sexual encounters each night up to four times a week'. And Altman added this little detail: 'Many' of these men 'reported that they had used drugs, such as amyl nitrite...'. Six weeks later, another report in MMWR once again failed to say anything about drug use (CDC, 1981c).

At the CDC, Dr. James Curran was put in charge of setting up a task force to investigate this new medical phenomenon, which early on was named GRID (Gay­related Immune Deficiency). On his second day on the job, Harry Haverkos was signed up ­ it may have helped that he and Curran had both gone to Notre Dame. The newly formed group was called the Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections Task Force, and it included a dozen or so members. One of the first points to emerge was that virtually all the men in the initial cluster of cases they investigated had been frequent users of the nitrite inhalants called 'poppers'.

Nitrites have a respectable medical pedigree. In 1867, amyl nitrite was used to relieve angina pains in heart patients (Brunton, 1867). A volatile liquid, it came in a mesh­covered glass ampule which could be broken, or 'popped', and held to the nose. When the fumes were inhaled, the pain subsided. Nitrites expand arteries, and they do so by permitting muscles to relax (Nickerson, 1975). No reports of KS or immune problems surfaced in those heart patients, but then the inhalant was used only rarely, and during the patients' later years. There are amyl­, butyl­, alkyl­ and isopropryl nitrites, but it is always the nitrite part that is important.

Early­warning signs about the recreational use of nitrites began to appear in the medical literature in the 1970s. Dr. Guy Everett of the Chicago Medical School noted in 1972 that amyl nitrite 'is widely used by men, who most commonly sniff an inhaler or break a 'popper' shortly before orgasm'. The purpose seemed to be 'a sense of prolonged orgasm and increased sense of excitement', he wrote. Some said that poppers gave them a headache or aching eyes, however, and 'these are certainly warning signs of possible serious side effects' (Everett, 1972). Dr. David Smith, the founder and medical director of the Haight­Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, added that although poppers were gaining popularity outside 'the drug culture or the deviant subculture', there seemed to be 'less use or interest by either heterosexual or lesbian women' (Smith, 1972).

The American Journal of Psychiatry warned in 1978 that 'popping and snorting volatile nitrites' was a 'current fad for getting high'. But research raised the question whether 'repeated use of these products could increase the risk of developing cancer'. The problem was that 'inhaled nitrites could interact freely with endogenous trivalent nitrogen compounds to produce nitrosamines', some of which 'are known to be carcinogenic (Sigell, 1978). The following year the same journal noted that nitrite­use had proliferated among homosexuals. Their use was 'strongly related to a number of unconventional, deviant sexual practices', which were not named (Goode & Troiden, 1979). Reviewing the physiological effects of nitrites on the eve of the epidemic, Thomas Haley of the FDA warned once again that if a certain metabolism occurred, nitrites would produce nitrosamines, 'which are potent carcinogens' (Haley, 1980).

The CDC Task Force set forth in 1981 in search of the epidemic. In The Band Played On, Randy Shilts detailed their exploits in San Francisco:

'Dr. Harold Jaffe [of the CDC] looked nervously toward the barroom door. Even with a stiffsummer breeze, the air was redolent with something thickly acrid, like a strange mixture of battery acid and vegetable shortening. The Ambush looked as seedy as Jaffe had heard, the kind of place where you feet stick to the floor. It was also the source of the poppers about which the gay men in San Francisco couldn't rave enough. The Ambush's own brand of poppers, sold directly in an upstairs leather shop, didn't give you headaches, patients told Jaffe ... [But] Jaffe didn't believe he would find the solution in poppers ... Amyl nitrite had been around for a century without killing anybody' (Shilts, 1987).

Most AIDS reporters have been less candid than Randy Shilts, but he nonetheless remained silent about the real attraction of poppers. In fact, it has rarely appeared in print. 'He avoided the issue', said Hank Wilson, a gay activist in San Francisco, who founded the Committee to Monitor Poppers in 1981. 'The great breaker of the taboos had his own taboo on this issue'. Mr. Wilson himself, who manages a single­room occupancy hotel in San Francisco, was candid about poppers. 'They relax your sphincter muscle, okay?' he said. 'If you're having casual sex, in a park or a bathroom or in a tearoom, wherever, and it's quick, it's casual? You don't generally have as much foreplay, you're more orgasmic oriented, as opposed to pleasuring someone. You see what I'm saying. Poppers facilitate quick anal intercourse' (Wilson, 1993).

The same claim was published in Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, in 1975. Poppers were by the mid 1970s being widely used by gay men, the journal reported, because they enabled 'the passive partner in anal intercourse to relax the anal musculature and thereby facilitate the introduction of the penis' (Labataille, 1975).

Virtually all the early homosexual patients later diagnosed with AIDS had used poppers. 'Amyl nitrite was used at least once by all the patients with Kaposi's sarcoma (in their study)', Michael Marmor et al. reported in The Lancet in 1982, 'and further passive exposure at homosexual discotheques was reported by many' (Marmor et al., 1982). Analysing the data from three early CDC studies, Dr. Haverkos and coworkers found that out of 87 patients with Kaposi's, pneumocystis or both, all but three had used poppers (Haverkos et al., 1985). He had interviewed one of those three himself, in a New York hospital. 'He had pneumocystis, was short of breath, and was eager to get back upstairs to his room', Haverkos recalled. 'He simply answered 'no' to questions and skipped whole sections of the interview' (Haverkos, 1994). Questions about nitrite­use came at the end of the form. It is quite likely, in fact, that all 87 of the men had used poppers.

Surrounded by stacks of papers and medical journals in his cramped office, Haverkos gives several reasons for suspecting that nitrites are the cause of Kaposi's. The statistical connection between the two is impressive. Repeated use of poppers, and the incidence of KS, have been overwhelmingly confined to gay men. 'About 96% of Kaposi's cases occur in gay men, as opposed to 65% of all AIDS cases', he said. Twice as many whites as blacks use poppers ­ and twice as many get Kaposi's. After warnings about nitrites spread through the gay community in the mid 1980s, both the use of poppers and the incidence of Kaposi's declined.

The unwritten rule of public health seems to be that infectious disease must always trump toxicology, even when the epidemiological indicators of infectious disease are missing. 'If somebody could find me five white women with Kaposi's who did not use nitrites, between the ages of 18 and 45, sexually linked to a man with Kaposi's ­ just five couples ­ that would take me back', Haverkos said. 'But we're 13 years into this epidemic, and I have not seen such cases reported. If this was a sexually transmitted agent, there ought to be a handful of women like that'.

When asked what changes in AIDS research and reporting he would like to see, he made a simple request. About 5000 new cases of Kaposi's are reported every year, but we still don't know how many of these people used nitrites. Why not? The forms that clinicians fill out to this day lack questions about nitrite use. They ask about sexual orientation, about intravenous drug use and other categories traditionally linked to AIDS. But nothing about poppers. 'I almost had a question about nitrites put on the CDC surveillance form back in 1984', Haverkos said. 'But they had to weed it, make it a little shorter, and that was one of the questions that they took off'.

No cases of KS have been reported among bloodtransfusion recipients where the donor himself later developed the cancer. This suggests that HIV alone is insufficient to cause the disease, and that whatever does cause KS is not readily transmitted through blood. In addition, a number of HIV­free cases of KS have been reported by two doctors, Alvin Friedman­Kien in New York and Marcus Conant in San Francisco (FriedmanKien et al., 1990; Perlman, 1993).

Dr. Conant, Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had found half a dozen non­HIV cases of KS in the Bay Area, that 'dozens more' have been found elsewhere in the country, and that the evidence is 'overwhelming that [KS] is not caused by HIV'. Dr. Conant rejects the nitrite theory of KS as well, although he admitted that he has made 'no formal study' on the use of nitrites by his own KS patients (Conant, 1994).

Kaposi's is a blood­vessel tumor, and nitrites act on blood vessels. 'The lesions are most common on the face, nose and chest', Haverkos said. 'If you're inhaling vapors, that is where you will encounter the highest concentrations'. Dr. Sidney Mirvish of the University of Nebraska Medical Center has demonstrated that isobutyl nitrite vapor is mutagenic in the Ames test, and that inhaled vapor is eleven times more dangerous than nitrite in liquid form (Mirvish et al., 1993).

'The primary action of nitrites is cell intoxication', said Dr. Peter Duesberg, a cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. 'Nitrites reach into the bone marrow and interfere with the creation of new blood cells, including T­cells. They kill enzymes, and they mutate DNA' (Duesberg, 1994a). Duesberg believes that nitrite use alone is sufficient to explain most of the early AIDS cases among gay men, where either immune suppression or KS was found.

'Put all those points together', Dr. Haverkos said, 'and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that there is some logic to the hypothesis'. Unfortunately for the hypothesis, he added, 'the CDC and the NIH then published two big studies in which they didn't find an association between nitrites and KS'. Perhaps the most important was the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. Between 1984 and 1985, about 5000 gay men in four cities participated. Those who developed AIDS were compared with HIV­positive controls who did not, and nitrite users did not seem to be concentrated in the AIDS group. The authors, however, noted the limitations of their own research. 'We did not attempt to quantify nitrite usage... It is thus possible that we missed or obscured a meaningful association' (Polk et al. 1987).

Patients were asked how frequently they had 'used poppers during sex in the past two years', Haverkos points out, and by the time subjects were asked the question, many gay men had become wary of poppers through point­of­sale warnings in gay bars and porn shops. These had had their deterrent effect. Statistics from the San Francisco Health Department show a dramatic drop in the use of poppers between 1982 and 1988 (Wilson, 1994a). Therefore, by the time subjects in the MAC study were interviewed, it is likely than many were no longer using poppers, or had given them up two years earlier. The yes/no, ever/never questions that have also been used in other epidemiological studies have consistently failed even to try to quantify lifetime use of nitrites.

In retrospect, it seems possible that government medicine was not terribly interested in finding a toxicological or behavioral cause of AIDS. The virologists were on the case very quickly. The first three reports in MMWR all include 'editorial notes' mentioning cytomegalovirus, and such comments as: 'activation of oncogenic virus during periods of immunosuppression may result in the development of KS' (CDC, 1981b). James Curran of the CDC considered the possibility that a 'bad batch of the inhalants could have triggered the immune problems'. That would explain why sickness seemed to be limited to three cities. 'Contaminated vials' therefore might be the answer. But, Randy Shilts reported, Curran never really gave credence to the nitrite theory. After all, 'some five million doses of nitrite inhalants were sold in American in 1980 alone' (Shilts, 1987).

Mary Guinan, another Task Force member, thought that 'somebody who gets a rush from heroin isn't going to toy around with something as lightweight as disco inhalants', an odd remark in view of their known widespread use by homosexuals at that time (ibid). Harold Jaffe of the CDC 'didn't believe he would find the solution in poppers', Shilts reported. 'If the puzzle was that simple, somebody would have solved it by now' (ibid). In fact, amyl nitrite 'had been around for a century without killing anybody'.

In Sentinel for Health, a history of the CDC published in 1992, Elizabeth Etheridge describes the visit of Jaffe and Guinan to San Francisco in 1981, where they took blood samples from patients and controls, the latter drawn from the practices of private physicians, friends (but not sexual partners) of patients, and homosexuals selected from VD clinics. Etheridge's reporting, based on an interview with Harold Jaffe, continued as follows:

'When the task was done and the data from all the cities were analyzed, there was little doubt it was a sexually transmitted disease. The lifestyles of the patients and the controls were quite different, the patients being much more sexually active, much more likely to have sex with people they did not know. Reports from the lab showed that cases had much lower T­lymphocyte counts than controls. While many of the patients were routine users of amyl nitrites or 'poppers', no one in the KSOI Task Force believed that the disease was a toxicological problem' (Etheridge, 1992).

Haverkos was on the Task Force, and he still does believe just that. Today Harold Jaffe is the director of the division of HIV/AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has relented a little, but not much. 'The observation we're trying to explain is: Why is it that among all persons with HIV infection, KS is so common among gay men?' he said in an interview. 'And we don't know the answer to that. There are a number of theories. It's at least possible that nitrites might play a role in Kaposi's developing in gay men. But I don't think they could be the entire explanation, because Kaposi's does occur in other HIV infected persons who do not use nitrites' (Jaffe, 1994).

Haverkos replied that these cases are extremely rare, and he says that there has been no follow­up to determine if misdiagnosis occurred. 'I don't think you can dismiss nitrites because of a few underevaluated studies', he said (Haverkos, 1994).

'The difficulty is this', Dr. Jaffe added. 'Nitrite use among gay men also tends to be associated with other behaviors. Men with a heavy use of nitrite inhalants often also are highly sexually active, and have other sexually transmitted diseases. So it's very hard in doing studies to be able to separate out all these behaviors that are highly associated'.

Nonetheless, it seems remarkable that professional disease sleuths should have found it so hard to believe that a carcinogen, reported as a new fad among homosexual men in the 1970s, might be the cause of a new cancer that emerged in the 1980s ­ and emerged among the very people who had been inhaling it.

An indicator of the CDC's evident desire to subordinate toxicity to infection in searching for a cause came in 1983. In that year, even before HIV was identified as 'the virus that causes AIDS', the Public Health Service put out a brochure ('What Gay and Bisexual Men Should Know About AIDS') specifically claiming that nitrite inhalants had been 'ruled out' as a cause of AIDS. 'Current research favors the theory that AIDS is caused by an infective agent, possibly a member of the retrovirus group', the pamphlet explained (U.S. Public Health Service, 1983).

The second most important experiment enabling the CDC to 'rule out' poppers was a study done on mice, conducted in 1982­83 by Daniel Lewis and Dennis Lynch of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (a subdivision of the Centers for Disease Control). Mice were exposed to various concentrations of isobutyl nitrite for up to 18 weeks, and the effect on their immune systems was measured. A sharply lower white blood cell count was observed in male mice (down to nearly one third the level of controls), but the overall conclusion of the study was that 'at the levels tested, isobutyl nitrite had no significant detrimental effect on the immune system of mice' (Haverkos & Dougherty, 1988).

In May, 1994, however, the National Institutes of Health sponsored a 'technical review' of nitrite inhalants at a public meeting in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Among the speakers was Daniel Lewis. In conducting the experiment, he explained, nitrite dosage had been kept low, approximating the background exposure levels encountered by humans working in a poppers factor. In a detailed report on the meeting, the writer John Lauritsen noted: 'Lewis explained that in determining the dose, they had to adjust it below the level at which they were 'losing' the mice'. It is possible that the mice they 'lost' had in fact succumbed to immunotoxicity ­ exactly what the study claimed not to have found (Lauritsen, 1994a). When asked how he accounted for the discrepancy between the findings of this study, and others definitely showing immune­system impairment (Ortiz & Rivera, 1988), Lewis responded: 'dosage and length of exposure'. Nitrites 'should be considered a hazardous substance', he added (Lauritsen, 1994b).

What about the testing of nitrites on human subjects? Eighteen male volunteers were tested for a few days by Elizabeth Dax and William Adler at the Addiction Research Center in the late 1980s. After the last inhalation, blood was drawn for the immune profile; and then again after one, four and seven days had passed. Modest depression of T­lymphocyte counts and natural killer cells were observed, with a rebound to baseline levels taking place several days after the last inhalation (Dax, 1991). Lee Soderberg of the University of Arkansas also made a presentation at the Gaithersburg session. His experiments, with mice subjected to a stronger nitrite dose, definitely showed immune­system impairment, especially a reduction of macrophage activity. Here, too, immune functions seemed to recover after about a week (Soderberg & garnet, 1991).

During a question period, Dr. Duesberg, who was an observer although not a speaker at the session, raised this issue of reversibility. Among homosexuals, he pointed out, nitrite use had often gone on for years. What is needed, he suggested, are longer­term studies. But Soderberg said that his team had 'no data on more chronic exposure' (Lauritsen, 1994a).

Duesberg said later that those who had so carefully investigated smoking and lung cancer would not have been content to give subjects a few cartons of Marlboros, and having found that they caused no ill effects, proclaim cigarettes to be safe. 'With drugs, the dose is the poison', he said (Duesberg, 1994a). And the dose accumulates. The apparent failure to appreciate this point is the answer to Jaffe's and Curran's earlier belief that nitrites could hardly be the cause of disease, because nitrite­use was already so widespread by 1981. The key point is that nitrite­use as a fad or habit in the gay community had apparently been going on for about ten years by the time Kaposi's emerged. And that may well be the time it takes for the critical dose­level to build up.

Duesberg has proposed to correct the research lacuna by exposing mice to nitrites for longer periods, and then seeing what happens. Will they develop pneumocystis or something resembling Kaposi's? In August, 1993, while he was working on a grant application to fund such an experiment (together with an experienced animal researcher from the University of California, Davis), Duesberg discussed the situation with

Daniel Koshland, who at the time was both the editor of Science magazine and, like Duesberg, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley. Duesberg told Koshland about the widespread use of poppers among homosexuals, the toxicity of nitrites, and the need for further animal experimentation. Koshland had heard very little about al1 of this potentially crucial background to the AIDS controversy (Duesberg, 1994a). The upshot was that he supported Duesberg's grant proposal. His letter of support was submitted along with the grant application to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In it he wrote:

'As an observer, I have in the past been critical of Duesberg for not suggesting experiments to resolve this controversy. However, he has now answered my call with a proposal to test the role of nitrite inhalants as a co­factor in AIDS. Certainly this idea seems intuitively to have merit, as nitrites have long been known for their potent mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. He plans to extend some unfinished work by other laboratories in the mid1980s on mice ...' (Koshland, 1993).

Despite this endorsement from the editor of the leading science journal in the country, the proposal was turned down by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency cited Duesberg's lack of 'preliminary experiments' in the field, and his failure to give a full hearing to opposing views. He resubmitted an amended proposal in August 1994, again supported by an endorsement from Daniel Koshland. But this too was turned down, in a letter dated November 30,1994. 'No further consideration be given to this application', the accompanying note read (Duesberg, 1994b).

Butyl nitrites were officially banned by the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (Public Law 100­690), but manufacturers responded by selling chemical variants as 'room odorizers' and marketing them under such names as 'Rush', 'Ram', and 'Locker Room'. Then, in the 1990 Omnibus Crime Control Act, mainly in response to the concerns of Rep. Mel Levine of California, Congress outlawed the manufacture and sale of all alkyl nitrites. Once again the chemistry was reconfigured, and by 1992 nitrites were back on the market, sold as video head cleaner, polish remover ('Just like the old daze!' ad copy in a gay magazine trumpeted), carburetor cleaner ('The good stuff') and leather stripper ('Not an overpriced 'headache in a bottle' like those other brands') (Wilson. 1994b).

'The use of poppers is increasing across the board in the big cities', the anti­poppers activist Hank Wilson claimed, in an interview in the summer of 1994. 'It's in the air in the San Francisco clubs. I personally stopped going to the sex clubs about 18 months ago because the air got so bad' (Wilson, 1994c).

Wilson's boyfriend, who always used poppers with sex and had KS, died last year of AIDS. Wilson himself was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, but looks to be in good health (he steers clear of AZT). Institutional memory in the gay community is short, Wilson said, and there is concern that young men who have come to the big city in the 1990s will think of poppers as the 'new toy'. They know little of the battles that were fought a decade ago, when point­of­sale warnings were mandated in California, but have since lapsed.

Wilson was furious that James Curran, now in a position of real power as the chief of AIDS research at the CDC, had not issued a community alert. Wilson cited a number of recent studies, including a 1994 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Lemp et al., 1994), showing incontrovertibly that popper use is a risk factor for unsafe sex. (A call by this reporter to .. Wilson was furious that James Curran, now in a position of real power as the chief of AIDS research at the CDC, had not issued a community alert. Wilson cited a number of recent studies, including a 1994 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Lemp et al., 1994), showing incontrovertibly that popper use is a risk factor for unsafe sex. (A call by this reporter to Curran's office at the CDC was referred to the press office. Tom Skinner of that of office said: 'It's my understanding that the use of nitrites is associated with unsafe sex. But to say that it's directly the cause of unsafe sex, there is no scientific proof of that'). (CDC, 1994).
  Wilson's group is affiliated with ACT UP/Golden Gate, and by the end of 1993 a few of its members began to take action. Ernest Harding of Los Angeles wrote to Kristine Gebbie's office complaining about a letter from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, reassuring one of the poppers manufacturers that their nitrite configuration was not covered by the law and was therefore legal. At the same time, Shane Que Hee, an associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA, who has written a textbook on biological monitoring with a chapter devoted to volatile nitrites, wrote to Rep. Henry Waxman (D­Calif) recommending that 'the immunosuppressive properties of these drugs should be researched completely before they are sold publicly' (Hee, 1993).
  The professor also wrote to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, urging that it withdraw approval of nitrite inhalants. He received a reply from the Office of Compliance and Enforcement saying that the commission had no such authority. 'The nitrite ban enacted by Congress is not all inclusive', Michael Bogumill wrote, 'as it is limited to consumer products containing volatile alkyl nitrites, which, according to chemical experts, does not necessarily include all volatile organic nitrites' (Bogumill, 1994). Therefore the commission could do nothing. Nitrites continue to be sold, in compliance with the letter but not the spirit of the law.
  In the correspondence with Gebbie, Ernest Harding added that the alcohol congener in poppers is not the relevant issue. 'It is the nitrite component that is dangerous, and on this basis we cannot permit the sale of any such product, whether it be disguised as a room odorizer, video­head cleaner, or any other obfuscation'. Gebbie responded by asking NIH if something couldn't be done, and in response the 'technical review' of nitrite inhalants was held in Gaithersburg in May.
  One session was titled, 'Do Nitrites Act as a Co­Factor in Kaposi's Sarcoma?' The best known speaker was the National Cancer Institute's Robert Gallo, co­discoverer of HIV. What he said was noteworthy. Although HIV was surely a 'catalytic factor' in Kaposi's, he said, 'there must be something else involved'. Then he added:
 
 'I don't know if I made this point clear, but I think that everybody here knows ­ we never found HIV DNA in tumor cells of KS. So this is not directly
 transforming. And in fact we've never found HIV DNA in T cells, although we've only looked at a few. So in other words we've never seen the role of HIV as a transforming virus in any way. The role of HIV has to
 be indirect' (Lauritsen, 1994a). In response to a question from Dr. Haverkos, who said that not a single case of KS had been reported among blood recipients where the donor had KS, Gallo allowed: 'The nitrites could be the primary factor'. Also worth noting is a comment of Anthony Fauci, at the time chief of AIDS research at NIH. In a San Francisco Chronicle article questioning the link between HIV and Kaposi's, Fauci was quoted as saying: 'I would not be totally surprised if we found out that KS is caused by a combination of things. Maybe by an agent that is at this point unrecognized' (Perlman, 1993).
  Let us briefly review: In 1981, the CDC found that gay men were coming down with unusual diseases, among them a rare cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma. It turned out that with very rare exceptions, all these men had been inhaling a volatile substance of known mutagenic and carcinogenic potential, for the purpose of getting 'high' and facilitating anal intercourse. Despite the best regulatory efforts of Congress, this substance is still sold legally. Meanwhile in 1984, in the course of an election campaign, we were told that the cause of AIDS had been discovered. The virus HIV was the culprit. Ten years later, we were told by the co­discoverer of the virus that nitrite inhalants 'could be the primary factor' in KS, which, Dr. Fauci thought at the end of 1993, might be caused 'by an agent that at this point is unrecognized'. By mid 1994, then, it was clear from the mouths of the government's leading researchers that they still did not understand AIDS.
  That August, Haverkos attended the 10th Inter national AIDS Conference in Yokohama. He wasn't well­known enough to give a speech, but he was given space to displayed the 'poster' that he and the CDC's Peter Drotman had put together. It analyses 12 epidemiological studies that have been used to examine the role of nitrites and other potential co­factors in the development of Kaposi's, and it shows that these questionnaires had failed to quantitate nitrite use.
  'Went okay', Haverkos said later, in his usual lowkey manner. Nothing earth­shattering. A few people came by and talked. A reporter from a Canadian newspaper interviewed him. 'I've been figuring this story was going to break since, oh, about 1985', he said with a laugh.
  Then, near the end of 1994, there was an unexpected development in the story. In mid­December, a husband and wife team at Columbia University held a press conference declaring that they had found traces of what may be a newly detected virus in tissue taken from deceased AIDS patients with Kaposi's. The scientists, Yuan Chang and Patrick S. Moore, used a new technique (representational difference analysis) to help identify molecular fragments from genes of the apparent virus. The DNA sequences were homologous to, but distinct from protein genes of the herpes virus. They were found in 90% of KS­tissue from patients who had died with AIDS­related KS, in 15% of nonKS tissue from AIDS patients, and not at all in non­KS tissue from people without AIDS.
  With accompanying news media fanfare, their findings were reported in Science magazine (Chang et al., 1994). Earlier that year, Moore had attended Haverkos's nitrite review session as a silent observer. Before joining his wife at Columbia, he had worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Colorado, and for New York City's public health servlce.
  Moore and Chang duly emphasized the preliminary nature of their findings. They had neither isolated the virus, nor determined its complete structure, nor proved that it was the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma. 'There's a long step between finding DNA sequences and having a virus', said Dr. George Miller, a Yale University expert in herpes viruses (Altman, 1994). Nonetheless, Dr. Harold Jaffe of CDC told Jon Cohen for an accompanying article in Science that 'it's a tremendously exciting result ... At this point we can't say that it's the etiologic agent, but I think it's a very good candidate'.
  The opinion of Dr. Gallo was sought. The new paper was 'really good work', he said, but he still had 'major questions' (Cohen, 1994). These dealt with the claim that the putative virus is found rarely or not at all outside the population of gay men. (This would make it unique among herpes viruses, which are found in a large proportion of the general population.) Cohen's Science article was headlined: 'Is a New Virus the Cause of KS?'
  Almost in passing, the main Science paper noted that investigators had long suspected that AIDS­related Kaposi's might be infectious, and that over the years suspected causal agents had included: cytomegalovirus, hepatitis B virus, human herpes virus 6, HIV, and Mycoplasma penetrans. 'Extensive investigations, however, have not demonstrated an etiologic association between any of these agents and AIDS­KS', Chang, Moore et al. added. Thus, it seemed, HIV was quietly dropped from the list of the possible causes of Kaposi's.
  Lawrence K. Altman, who attended the press conference, came through with a front­page story in the New York Times (Altman, 1994). Headlined 'Apparent Virus May Be a Cause of Fatal Cancer in AIDS Patients', it made no mention of HIV at all. A simultaneous report by Lisa M. Krieger in the San Francisco Examiner ('AIDS­related cancer linked to herpes virus') began as follows:
 
 'New research suggests that Kaposi's sarcoma, a potentially deadly disease long thought to be caused by HIV, is instead caused by a type of sexually transmitted herpes virus that preys on people with AIDS' (Krieger, 1994).  Four days later, a second story by Altman was published in the New York Times (Altman, 1994b). Since its initial article in July, 1981, the paper had remained loyal to the infectious­agent theory of Kaposi's and said very little about nitrite use. In this second article, however, Altman raised a number of interesting questions. If the new 'virus' causes Kaposi's, for example, 'why did it appear at the same time as HIV?' Why two new viruses at once? And 'does the Kaposi's sarcoma virus suppress the immune system independently of the AIDS virus?' He further asked: 'Why has the percentage of AIDS patients with Kaposi's sarcoma declined in the United States over the last ten years?' (Nitrite use, of course, has likewise declined.) Altman still seemed to be skirting the key question: What role, if any, was reserved for HIV in the development of Kaposi's?
  When I spoke to Dr. Harry Haverkos in mid­December, he still had not seen the article in Science, but he had discussed the news with former colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. If the new discovery held up, he said, and the etiologic agent for KS had indeed been found, HIV would probably still be regarded as a co­factor predisposing the patient to KS by weakening the immune system. He used the analogy of tuberculosis. About ten million people in the U.S. are infected with TB, he said, but only about one million will develop active disease in their lifetime. Various factors (coal­miners' disease, for example) may weaken the TB­infected patient sufficiently to allow the dormant bacillus to become active.
  Haverkos stressed, however, that the Columbia Univ team still had a way to go. Just as earlier sexual transmitted agents for KS had not survived closer exam, so this new virus might not either. Meanwhile, he admitted, his nitrite hypothesis had been dealt a setback, if only because researchers would not take it seriously 'until they have sorted out this new factor.' Which could take time. In the mid 80s, he recalled, he was about to embark on a study of nitrites with the military, when just at that moment the Armed Forces Inst of Pathology, on the campus of Walter Reed, came forth with the hypothesis that mycoplasmas were a cofactor for KS. This theory didn't survive scrutiny, but 'by the time they sorted it out, the impetus to do the study I had proposed had withered away, and the people at the Inst who were interested in it had been transferred somewhere else.'
  Still, he said, there was a pos side to the development. 'It does suggest that there must indeed be a cofactor for KS.' Back in 1984, when the cause of AIDS was announced at a press conference held by the HHS Secy Margaret Heckler, it was assumed that the then culprit, HIV, was the necessary and sufficient cause of a syndrome that prominently included
  Kaposi's sarcoma. Ten years later, the unwary reader might not have noticed that a certain three letter acronym was totally absent from the press rel distributed at the Moore and Chang news conf at Columbia Univ. HIV had quietly disappeared from the picture. *
  Tom Bethell is Wash correspondent of the Amer Spectator. He wrote this article while he was a Media Fellow at the Hoover Inst, Stanford Univ. An abbreviated ver of this article was published in Spin, Nov, 94.


\18 Poppers and queers

"AHAH! HEH HEH HEH HEH!  So! You won't take warning, eh? All the worse for you... And now, my beauties - some thing with poison in it I think. With poison in it! But attractive to the eye!"

Wicked Witch of the West, in The Wizard of Oz. Poppers are back! You may have noticed. After almost dropping from sight in the mid-to-late AIDies, they've risen to the surface again in the Naughty Nineties - this time as an illegal, rather than a legal, drug. I live in Toronto, an a friend who used to work in one of the bathhouses here told me their basement was filled with crates of the stuff until just a little while ago. In the dance clubs, vendors wander around selling brown bottles out of shopping bags, or you can order them from ads in the local gay rag, imported from Quebec, where they're still legal.

They're not just in the big centers, either. When I visited Saskatoon a few years ago, everyone on the dance floor of the gay bar seemed to be snorting them. Of course, in the old days, we could buy them over the counter at the Yonge Street head shops. Now they're banned - which means the dealers will come to you.

Of all the drugs, legal and illegal, that have been funnelled into the gay ghetto over the years, the cheapest and (apart from alcohol and tobacco) most widely available was poppers. What the scientists call 'nitrite inhalants,' poppers got their name because when they were first manufactured, they came in small ampoules that were 'popped' to release fumes. That was when they were only available on prescription, for the occasional use of certain heart patients. Once they became a snort 'em-anytime-fun-drug, having to keep breaking open little ampoules tended to limit one's intake, and since, as every child of the consumer society knows, more is better, enter the familiar little brown screw-top bottle.

In the gay ghettos of the Seventies and early Eighties, poppers were always at the center of the action. On any given night at, say, the Anvil in Manhattan, a large percentage of the men on the dance floor would have poppers in hand, and many of the rest would be helping to pass the bottles around. Some disco clubs would even add to the general euphoria by occasionally spraying the dance floor with poppers fumes.

Michael Rumaker, in his classic book A day and a Night at the Baths, describes the tubs as "permeated with that particularly inert, greasy odor of poppers. Wherever you went, the musky chemical smell of it was constantly in your nostrils." He found himself heading to the single, small window, in order to gasp a few breaths of "something other than the cold, kerosene smell of amyl."

My own most vivid memory of poppers in action goes back to Fire Island, sometime in the Seventies - that legendary time. Yes, children, I was there, I remember it. I was vistiting friends in the Pines, and was spending a couple of hours at the disco one night. Across the room, I noticed an acquaintance of mine, the writer George Whitmore, dancing up a storm and inhaling liberally from a poppers bottle which he kept in the pocket of his jeans. Somehow in the course of the evening, the bottle broke, and the contents spilled all over George's leg, giving him a terrible and very unsightly burn. It made me wonder what kind of damage inhaling the stuff must do.

The original, medicinal form of poppers was amyl nitrate, a 'vascular dilator' used by people with angina. They didn't snort it all night of course. They just took a whiff of it on odd occasions when the old ticker felt funny. Still, the product was worth quite a bit to Burroughs Wellcome, the giant pharmaceutical company that owned the patent and enjoyed a monopoly on sales.

Then, early in the Sixties, another angina medicine came along, better, more convenient, and it didn't give you a headache: nitroglycerin tablets. Suddenly, doctors had something else to prescribe instead of those little tins of amyl. (In my collection, I have an intriguing artefact from the Fifties, a little poppers tin marked Burroughs Wellcome - Amyl Nitrate. It's also marked POISON.) So it seemed amyl would go the way of snuff and smelling salts, and the sales graph at BW started to head towards the floor.

Whoever thought up the next move was certainly brilliant in their cynical inventiveness. It occurred to someone that there must surely be other lucrative markets for amyl nitrate, with its characteristic throbbing 'rush' and short-lived feeling of euphoria. Somewhere along the line, contacts with the US military were sounded out, and before long, poppers had found a new test market in the jungle battlefields of Vietnam.

At the height of the Vietnam War the average GI made his tour of duty a little more tolerable by getting strung out on a variety of mood-alternating substances including grass, opium, heroin, and the smorgasbord of amphetamines. The military in those days had a pretty casual attitude to the drug use and quite a few backline supply sergeants found they could use their Mob contacts from civilian life to transport drugs from Southeast Asia to the US.

From '66 or '67 until the end of the American involvement in the war in the mid-Seventies, drugs circulated between American cities and the war zone, and when the war was lost, overseas operations were transferred to Latin America, with cocaine and crack replacing heroin as the drug of choice on the street. The CIA had its hand in this, but that's another story. For the boys in 'Nam, nitrite inhalants were a welcome addition to the chemical stew. They were legal, they were easy to carry, and they were being shipped in from the States, literally by the cratefull - touted as an antidote to gun fumes!

When the surviving GIs returned home, many of them were eager to keep up their poppers habit, and under heavy pressure from the manufacturers, the Food and Drug Administration made a ruling sanctioning over-the-counter sales. Poppers became available without prescription to the American public. Then about a year later, the first reports of peacetime casualties began to come in. Terrible skin burns, blackout, breathing difficulties and blood anomalies caused poppers to be placed under restriction again.

But once you've let the genie out of the bottle, it's pretty difficult to put him back. The ban on amyl quickly became ineffective when an enterprising gay medical student in California, Clifford Hassing, altered its atomic structure just slightly - it isn't hard to do - and applied for a patent on butyl nitrite. The genie was changing form, as genies will.

Soon, Hassing had been muscled out of his thoughtful little home-lab operation by larger 'entrepreneurs,' nominally-independent operators controlled by organized crime syndicates. They made further chemical changes and came up with butyl and isobutyl nitrite - less pure, more toxic, and even faster-acting than the original amyl. And with the post-Stonewall rise of the urban, drug-based 'gay lifestyle,' gays were seen as the ideal market sector for a new aphrodisiac.

At this point the FDA apparently wanted nothing more than to be done with the whole business, and a modus vivendi was established. The unwritten agreement seems to have been: public distribution of poppers would be permitted - as long as they were labelled 'room odorizer and marketed only to gay men. With this cynical unwritten agreement, poppers became a multi-million dollar business for the Mob.

During the Seventies and early Eighties, much of the gay press, including the most influential glossy publications, came to rely on poppers ads for a huge chunk of its revenue, and poppers became an accepted part of gay sex. There was even a comic strip called Poppers, by Jerry Mills. The unwritten agreement was almost never breached: poppers ads appeared only in gay publications. The few exceptions were women's magazines with a large gay male readership, like Playgirl.

Meanwhile, laboratory research on poppers had been quietly proceeding, and a couple of gay activists had been paying attention. Hank Wilson (on the West Coast) and John Lauritsen (in the East) formed The Committee to Monitor Poppers, collecting scientific data on just what poppers were doing. What they found wasn't good. Apart from causing localized damage to nasal membranes, poppers have been linked to anemia, strokes, heart, lung, and brain damage, arterial constriction, cardiovascular collapse, and, most tellingly, the blood de-oxygenation, thymus atrophy, and chronic depletion of T-cell ratio's associated with severe immune dysfunction.

Before the first official reports of AIDS in 1981, relatively few voices had been raised to question what health problems poppers users might be causing themselves. A few attempts were made to curb sales, but the manufacturers always got around it by changing either the chemical formula or the product name. And the gay press, dependent on revenue from ads, did not care to blow the whistle on its own advertiser. One researcher contacted Robert McQueen, the Advocate's editor, to warn him that poppers "strongly suppresses" the immune system and could contribute to KS and Pneumocystis pneumonia. But McQueen said he wasn't interested. The Advocate ran a series of ads promoting poppers as a 'Blueprint for Health.'

While researchers and gay advocates warned of danger, the FDA stood aside; as long as poppers were marketed as room perfume for fags, they would do nothing. And one popper manufacturer circulated a letter to all the gay papers, reminding them just who was "the largest advertiser in the Gay press." They certainly were that, and their ads were obviously very effective. By 1978, poppers industry profits topped $50 million a year. So just how were poppers promoted in the gay media? A look through back issues of gay papers and magazines reveals some interesting features.

An ad for "heavy duty" Bolt, a brand of "liquid incense," shows a couple of jock-strapped soldiers, buddies in 'Nam perhaps, sharing a smoke beside a loaded machine gun. Military nostalgia? Another as shows a bomb falling on a city, with the caustic caption "It's the Rush Hour!" There are ads for a brand of poppers known as Crypt Tonight - a deadly pun linking the crypt and the rock that can kill even Superman. Another brand was called Satan's Scent, which promised "a devilish aroma." A brand called Cum showed its bottle as a dripping cock and balls.

Going over these ads, it's striking how many of them feature bombs, bullets, weaponry, and other symbols of death and destruction. The most sinister of all is a full-page colour spread for a brand called Hardware. It shows an open bottle of the product, surrounded by and seemingly giving rise to the distinctive, death-seeding mushroom cloud of an atomic (or hydrogen) bomb. In the head of this reddish-gold phallic cloud are two human faces, their eyes closed, their noses appearing to melt or dissolve. Between the faces is another, subliminal image: the head of a snorting white bull. The text below reads: "Intensely Powerful."

Poppers ads often combined appeals to masculinity and potency with this sort of overt or covered death imagery. At the same time, the political right was sending gays messages that they deserved to die, and information on the deathly effects of poppers was being suppressed. The results for the gay community were a disaster. A number of studies of the effects of poppers have strongly suggested a link between poppers use and the appearance of Kaposi's sarcoma in young gay men.

During the first few years of the AIDS epidemic, poppers came under suspicion as a possible contributing factor. But after 1984, when the Reagan administration pronounced a single retrovirus to be the only cause of the growing list of AIDS illnesses, the health hazards of poppers were dismissed. All attention and funding was directed to HIV. Eventually, through the efforts of a few dogged activists and researchers, state legislatures began to get into the act, and finally, most jurisdiction made poppers illegal - in spite of a well-financed campaign by a leading manufacturer, W.J. Freezer, the 'Pope of Poppers.' But even then, information about poppers was still not made widely available.

Now that the official explanation of AIDS has shown itself to have holes big enough to drive a truck through, and has produced neither a vaccine nor a cure, even some in the AIDS establishment are beginning to rethink their 'HIV Does It All' position, and are taking a new look at a range of other factors, including the health risks associated with inhaling large amounts of nitrites.

An article by John Lauritsen in June 13, 1994 issue of the New York Native, 'The poppers-KS Connection,' summarizes the latest developments. The National Institute on Drug Abuse is now investigating a possible poppers-KS link, and even Dr. Robert Gallo, formerly the central pillar of HIV orthodoxy, is quoted as reassessing the role of poppers in KS: "The nitrites," he now says, "could be the primary factor."

A few years ago, I asked an old acquaintance, the Canadian AIDS activist Michael Lynch, to join with me in asking a popular gay paper to stop advertising poppers. No, he said, poppers were great, and as a matter of fact he used them all the time. This in spite of the fact that he was battling serious lung problems! Well, poppers can be highly addictive. Many gay men who use them find they're no longer able to enjoy sex without them. Some can't even jack off without them!

Outlawing liquor during the Prohibition era didn't stop people from drinking, it only caused a lot of grief and help the Mob get rich. The recent artificial raising of cigarette prices in Canada was flop, as cigarettes were smuggled over the border by the truckload. Recent history has shown that outlawing any given drug causes far more problems than it solves, and the banning of poppers is unlikely to prove an exception.

The only thing that can make a difference is AEIOU: attitude, education, information, organization, and understanding. In the meantime, poppers are back. I have a couple of catalogues here, one from New York City, the other from the West Coast, offering who knows what ersatz variety of bottled nitrite inhalants - only they're no longer 'room odorizer' or 'liquid incense' but 'video head cleaner' and 'polish remover.' "Just like the old days!" is the slogan. You bet.

George Whitmore, Jerry Mills, Robert McQueen, W.J. Freezer, and Michael Lynch are no longer with us. They all died of AIDS. Burroughs Wellcome, of course, the original manufacturers of poppers, went on to fame and fortune with its monopoly on another fine product, the highly-toxic 'anti-AIDS' drug AZT. *

Ian is the author of several books of poetry, and editor of The Male Muse and Son of the Male Muse, among others. The above article is adapted from 'The Stonewall Experiment: A Gay Psychohistory', published by Cassell.


\19 Salvia Divinorum

The most powerful natural psychedelic known has recently been isolated from a rare Mexican sage, Salvia divinorum. The active compound, SALVINORIN A, has astonished users and researchers with its dramatic and i ntense psychoactive effects, which are quite distinct from those of other psychedelics. Early experiments with salvinorin A have shown diverse results, ranging from alarming intensity and terror, to experiences of exquisite feelings and insights, transfor mative and healing energies, and bizarre physical/geometric dimensions.

In the first book dedicated to this subject, D.M. Turner discusses Salvia divinorum's botany, history and use by Mazatec Indian shamans in Oaxaca; the discovery by western researchers and subsequent experiments that yielded salvinorin A; methods for using both the extract and whole plant material, and descriptions of Salvia divinorum's unique effects. [Image] First-hand experiential accounts from pioneering users are presented, along with vivid descriptions of Turner's own extensive journeys within the fascinating and brave new worlds afforded by Salvia divinorum.

D.M. Turner is a psychedelic researcher and author of The Essential Psychedelic Guide. 57 pages with illustrations and photos - perfect bound with 4-color cover.

Avail for $9.95 plus $2.00 shipping, CA residents add .72 tax, from: * Panther Press 1032 lrving, #514 SFO CA 94122

For credit card orders ctc F.S. Book Co at (800)635-8883. Cost is $12.95 including shipping and card proc fee.

Made possible by: Lycaeum Drug Archives
 Secret of Smoked Salvia Divinorum  by Michael S. Smith
 After numerous attempts I finally came upon what I call the Secret of Smoked Salvia. I will not discuss the subjective effects except in a limited sense, but what I do wish to discuss is how one might better feel these effects.

First find a comfortable position, preferably sitting down in a quiet environment. Load a water pipe with a full hit of Salvia, light and inhale as deeply, and hold as long, as possible. A water pipe is the only tool effective for me due to its ability to cool the smoke and allow for large volumes to be inhaled easily. While holding in the hit it may be advantageous to poke out the left over ash/foliage and reload. Upon exhalation take a couple deep breathes of fresh air then inhale a second hit as above. Before taking another hit you may want to empty the water pipe of the left over smoke from the previous hit by simply blowing it out since the smoke stales quickly and make the next hit more difficult to inhale and hold for a length of time. Depending on unknown factors, or insufficient inhalations, one may find it necessary to do a hit or two more. Two deep hits has always been good for me, but I have unusually large lung capacity.

Those who are used to smoking are more likely to feel the effects of Salvia simply due to the fact that their lungs are much better prepared to inhale a large amount of smoke. One technique to use to bring in large volumes of smoke is to take a few deep breathes, exhale all the air in the lungs and then inhale from the water pipe. One other technique is to continue loading and smoking until you no longer have the coordination to load anymore. I’ve tried this last technique before and it is really great for open eye visuals.

After taking the necessary hits close your eyes, lay your head back on a comfortable support, and get your arms and legs in a comfortable open position that won’t require you to move after the effects have begun. When the effects begin one might have a strong desire to open ones eyes or change ones position to reestablish an equilibrium. It is important that you not do this. Lay perfectly still with eyes closed for the duration. If you desires to attempt the experiment with eyes open I highly recommend staying still as possible, having no moving objects in sight, and fixing ones eyes upon a motionless object for the duration. The initial peak last for no more than three to five minutes while residual effects may carry on for ten. With continued usage over time one becomes more adept at both noticing the effects of Salvia and at exploring the new landscape. As I continued using Salvia I reached a peak experience and now the visions are rather mundane, failing in their once spectacular glory.

The three most important factors in feeling the Salvia experience are appropriate silence, lack of movement, and closed eyes. I have found that a lack of dialog, either from other participants, or from TV is of primary importance, but that instrumental music makes for a quite intriguing experience, especially if 4 speakers are properly placed surrounding ones head. Since silence is such an integral part of the experience I’ve conducted sessions with only one person experimenting at a time. The participation of others during ones Salvia experience can at times be a hindrance. If others are present when you are experimenting it is important that they be as quiet as possible, both vocally and in their physical movements (no creaking in chairs or traversing hardwood floors, heavy breathing, or, the hardest thing for an observer to hold back, laughter).

I've always required of other participants/observers that they be completely still so as to cause absolutely no noise. During the experience a new landscape is opened up, one without borders, and space can appear to go on infinitely. Usually this landscape is one that can shift from one scene to the next without apparent provocation and which resembles a rapid succession of unconscious material forcefully trying to push itself into conscious awareness. If someone makes a noise or speaks the vision may be lost or altered since the noise, and where it is located in space, can still be comprehended by the conscious and rational mind. This causes the mind of the experimenter, which can be quite conscious of two realities at once, to become aware of the inconsistency between these realities, and this can, and in my case usually does, disrupt the experience.

What the motionless body allows the mind to do is to slip deeper into the dimensional nature of the vision. If the body is moved the vision will often alter or slip away. In some way the physical body defines the inner landscapes of the vision. My only way to explain this is to say that the conscious rational mind retains awareness of consensus reality while under the influence of Salvia. Since Salvia creates a non-consensus reality body movement causes a dichotomy of awareness which can cause the mind to attempt a reconciliation between these realities. Consensus reality often wins, causing the vision to dissipate, or at least lose its convincing nature.

This sort of dual awareness is also played out with sight, which may be why many who attempt to feel the effects of Salvia, and have failed to try closing their eyes, cannot. By having ones eyes open the mind appears to be unconsciously forced to recognize one reality over the next and therefore cannot fall deeply into the full Salvia experience. Of course this dichotomy of forces appears to be overcome depending on how much is smoked, and obviously extracted Salvinorin-A forces consensus reality to the wayside.

The main physical effects that I have noticed are a feeling of a rise of body temperature and a slight tightening of the muscles, especially in the hands. I found that if I consciously focus on relaxing my body during this tensioning that I would be pulled further into the vision. This fits into my theory of dichotomy. I’ve also found that after the main effects have worn off short term memory may be slightly impaired. For example, I kept forgetting about my lit cigarette in the ashtray. I would lay it down and then, in what appeared a couple minutes, it would be completely burned down to the filter.

One may also notice an inability to recall many of the aspects of the vision and may suffer from incoherent speech. The incoherent speech is very important in attempting to interpret the experience. Just as in Freudian dream psychoanalysis the mind make attempts to fill in the blanks of the vision with coherent structure, basically by adding material to make the vision make sense. But the visions in themselves are unconscious material coming up to a conscious level and this is very difficult to fully interpret.

When a participant comes down from the experience with me I remain completely silent, allowing the partaker to speak freely without my interjections or my attempts to make sense of what is being said. Let them freely speak, without the criticism of the all to common laughter, and try to form a new mental picture from remembered material. Let them have enough quiet time to digest what has happened so that they might come to their own personal understanding.

The main psychical effects seem to be a dissociation from ones physical surroundings. One becomes aware of other surroundings and of communication with alien, though not necessarily extraterrestrial or spiritual, beings. One of the more interesting factors I have found with Salvia is its ability to cause laughter, sometimes even uncontrollably so. Rarely have I seen fear from smoked foliage, but with Salvinorin-A I understand it is common.

Of course these are only my own observations and I make no guarantees of the same effects for others. Two last, though not thoroughly tested observations are that marijuana smoked beforehand interferes with the effects of Salvia and that the effects of Salvia plateau, thereby requiring a rapid succession of hits. I have yet to see if any other entheogen limits Salvia’s effects. I look forward to testing and hearing about others’ experiments with smoked Salvia during Mescaline, Psilocybin, Ayahuasca, and LSD excursions. It might also be interesting to try Salvia (masticated or smoked) in conjunction with smoked DMT. I have personally tried a smoked Salvia/5-MeO-DMT combination with highly dissociative effect on the “ego” (due to “Id” influences) while keeping a sense of “superego” awareness. I became my superego aware of my ego as it was being affected and effected by my id. You could also say I became my super consciousness aware of my conscious mind being affected and effected by my unconscious mind. Quite a spectacular feeling. Tripartite Being recognized as one.


\20 Singapore's blood money.

Hanging drug couriers but investing with their suppliers. Related: Strange bedfellows. Opinion editorial By Dr Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party. Protesters demand accountability from PM Goh on drugs Feedback: Letter from S'pore Embassy, USA.

Response from the authors. The Nation (US) Oct 20,97. By Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean

FRIDAYS, just before dawn, are hanging days in Singapore. Navarat Maykha, a Thai mother of two small children, awaited her turn as she prayed in her jail cell with her attorney, Peter Fernando, just a few days before her execution. An impoverished and uneducated woman, and also deeply religious, she swore until her death that she was unaware of the heroin that was hidden in the lining of a suitcase given to her by a Nigerian friend. 

Singapore - a tiny island nation of 3 million perched at the southern tip of the Asian continent - prides itself on its strict drug laws, which include a mandatory death sentence for anyone caught with as little as half an ounce of heroin.

"It's heartbreaking sometimes," said Fernando during a recent interview from his office in Singapore. "If you are an addict, and you are simply sitting at home with more than 15 grams of heroin and you cannot prove with scientific accuracy that a portion of the drugs are for personal use, you will hang." 

The fiercely authoritarian government micro-manages all aspects of the secretive hangings, as it does everything else in this country. This efficiency allows for the possibility of multiple executions when drug offenders swell the prison. On September 27, 1996, six people were hanged in one morning. Four had been hanged the previous Friday, all for drug trafficking. According to Amnesty International, 1995 - the year Navarat was executed - was a busy year at the gallows in Singapore, when more than fifty people were hanged, the majority for drug offenses.

In its Mar 1997 Intl Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the US State Dept said that "the number of drug traffic- kers hanged in Singapore increased dramatically in the last two years." Amnesty Intl, also describing a "sharp increase in the number of executions" in a 1997 report, states that those executed are most often small-time addicts and couriers, usually poorly educated and economically vulnerable, "while those who organise and profit from the crimes frequently escape capture and prosecution." 

But that does not describe the worst of it. The Nation has learned that the highest levels of the Singaporean government, using the New York-based Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan, as a custodial operative, are engaging in joint business ventures with one of the world's most notorious drug lords and with the drug-backed military dictatorship of Burma (Myanmar). This has been confirmed by corporate, government and legal documents from four countries and was contended by high-ranking US narcotics and government officials in private interviews.

Dual-track policy. ACCORDING to interviews with SIN lawyers and US narcotics officials, the heroin found in Singapore comes mostly from Burma, one of the world's largest exporters of the highly profitable drug, with 1996 exports estimated at $1 billion. Since the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) takeover of Burma in 1988, illicit drug exports have more than doubled; French and US satellite surveys have shown an explosion of poppy-growing in areas under the SLORC's direct control. In 1995 the Australian Parliament heard testimony on SLORC protection of the narcotics trade as a matter of policy, "in order to raise government revenue." And a report last year by the US embassy in Rangoon, based on the SLORC's economic data, concluded that exports of opiates "appear to be worth about as much as all legal exports" and that investments in infrastructure and hotels are coming from major opiate-growing and opiate-exporting organisations [see Bernstein and Kean, "People of the Opiate," December 16, 1996].
  "Drug traffickers who once spent their days leading mule trains down jungle tracks are now leading lights in Burma's new market economy," said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in a statement this past July. "We are increasingly concerned that Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies - some of which are joint ventures with foreign businesses," she said. It is with the SLORC, and allied organizations, that Singapore's hang-'em-high government is investing so heavily - in such ventures as hotels and infrastructure.

This dual-track policy is condoned and encouraged at top levels of the Singaporean regime, including by Lee Kuan Yew, the country's undisputed strongman. Lee, whose antidrug policies are among the strictest in the world, is participating in the country's deepening business relationships with renowned heroin trafficker Lo Hsing Han of Burma and his son and business partner, Steven Law. Their operations in Burma, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States are now the focus of an ongoing U.S. government narcotics and money-laundering investigation, The Nation has learned.

Lo Hsing Han, a Kokang Chinese from the opium-producing region of Burma's Golden Triangle, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1973 - not for drug trafficking, which had been carried out with the tacit agreement of the state, but for treason. After being released in a 1980 government amnesty, he returned to the Kokang region. As of 1994, Lo controlled the most heavily armed drug-trafficking organization in Southeast Asia. Today he rules with godfather status over a clan of traffickers, and his organisation controls a substantial amount of the world's opium production, according to US narcotics officials. A memo from the Thai government's Office of Narcotics Control Board states that Lo's trafficking activities are augmented through his link to Burma's military intelligence chief, Lieut Gen Khin Nyunt, described as Lo's "supporter." It says that in 1993 Lo was granted the "privilege from Lieut. Gen Khin Nyunt to smuggle heroin from the Kokang Group to Tachilek [on the Thai border] without interception."

Lo is chairman of Burma's Asia World Company Limited, managed by his son Law, who has achieved unprecedented success under the current dictatorship. "Law's power and connections are unparalleled," comments one US official. "No other domestic investor in Burma can get an audience with a cabinet member with one phone call. When Law got married, eight cabinet members showed up." Law's multi- million-dollar business ventures seem to win all bidding wars in Burma's development race. (Law was denied a visa to the United States last year. "We have info that leads us to believe he is a trafficker in illicit substances," a US govt official told The Nation in explanation.) 

Business is business. WALL Street Journal editors, in the 1997 Index of Economic Freedom, rated SIN as the most business-friendly country in the world. Unfortunately, that friendliness has been extended to Lo Hsing Han, Steven Law and the narco-dictatorship of Burma. 
  As Tay Thiam Peng, director of foreign operations at SIN's Trade Development Board, bluntly put it in 1996, when it comes to business, morality takes a back seat to profits. "While the other countries are ignoring Myanmar (Burma), it's a good time for us to go in," Tay stated. "You get better deals, and you're more appreciated... Singapore's position is not to judge them and take a judgmental moral high ground." As Burma's number-one business partner, Singapore now has 53 projects in Burma, which as of Jan totaled nearly $1.2 billion.

"Since 1988...over half of [the investments from] SIN have been tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han,'' says Robert Gelbard, former US Asst Secretary of State for the Bureau of Intl Narcotics and Law Enforce- ment Affairs. Most of these investments are in joint projects with Lo's family-controlled Asia World Company. Asia World includes a host of subsidiaries and three overseas branches in Singapore. US narcotics officials say that these "overseas branches" are part of the ongoing money-laundering investigation.

Asia World's 1996 company profile states that it began as a trader in agricultural and animal feed products but today "has emerged as one of Myanmar's (Burma's) fastest growing and most diversified conglomerates." Burma's largest private-sector enterprise, it has interests in trading, manufacturing, real estate, industrial investment, development, construction, transportation, imports and distribution. Asia World's operations now include the running of a deep-water port in Rangoon, the bus company Leo Express into northern Burma, and a $33 million toll highway from Burma's poppy-growing region to the Chinese border.

The combination of the Burmese military's ability to protect shipments and production in the country and Asia World's ability to move product over land and sea completes a perfect marriage of convenience. In addition to these operations, US narcotics officials say that Lo Hsing Han also runs a container business, shipping cargo out of Rangoon from a nondescript container yard the size of a city block. They suspect it of being a drug-shipping operation. Although it is a subsidiary of Asia World, the containerized cargo processing facility has no name, no sign and is not mentioned in Asia World's business profile. According to one official, some of the several hundred containers that have left this yard have gone to Singapore and the United States.

In a Jun tele interview from his hdqrs in Rangoon, Law denied all allegations of drug trafficking. He laughed and said that Asia World operates under govt regs, "so if we do anything against govt policy, we cannot do our business," Law said. "That's why concerning your point of any drugs in our city, I can say we haven't [been] involved."

The money trail: the Myanmar Fund THE Singapore govt, in cooperation with Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, is directly connected to key business ventures of drug kingpin Lo through an investment group called the Myanmar Fund. The fund, which provides investors "with long term capital appreciation from direct or indirect investments in Myanmar (Burma)," is registered as a tax-free fund in Jersey, Channel Islands, according to docs provided to the Irish Stock Exchange. 

Singapore's largest govt-controlled financial institution - the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) - is listed in the docs along with Morgan Guaranty Trust Bank (J.P. Morgan subsidiary separate from the Trust Co) as a core shareholder in the Myanmar Fund. A Sep 1996 GIC business profile from the Registry of Companies and Businesses in Singapore shows that high-level 

Singaporean politicians are officers and directors of the GIC, including senior minister Lee Kuan Yew; his son, deputy prime minister Brig Gen Lee Hsien Loong; and finance minister Dr Richard Hu. As a core shareholder, the GIC helps determine how the fund's money is invested in Burma. Jean Tan, a spokesperson for the Singaporean embassy in Wash, confirmed in a Jun interview that the GIC holds a 21.5 percent share of the Myanmar Fund. As of last November, this investment was worth $10 million, according to the Singaporean govt. 

The Myanmar Fund owns 25% of an Asia World subsidiary, Asia World Industries. In fact, the Myanmar Fund's 1997 first-quarter report features two pictures of Asia World factories on its cover. The Myanmar Fund has also heavily invested in a number of luxury htls in Burma, including Rangoon's Traders and Shangri-La. The Asia World business profile describes the Traders and Shangri-La htls as major investment pjts for Lo Hsing Han's co. It says that the Shangri-La Hotel (and surrounding apts and offices) will be "the biggest of all" Asia World's investments, with "$200 million...in appropriation of the project."

In an official press release last Nov, the Singapore govt stated that its investments in the Myanmar Fund were "completely open and above board" and that its invest- ments in both the two luxury htls and Asia World were "straightforward investments in bona fide commercial projects." However, the fund's ops are hardly straight forward and open. The ops of the GIC itself are effect- ively a state secret. The government company is not required to file annual reports or report to parliament. It has no public accountability, even though it uses public moneys for its investments. Furthermore, according to fund documents, in late 1994 - only weeks after being listed on the Irish Stock Exchange - the GIC's shares disappeared from the stock exchange register and were re-registered under the name of Ince & Co. The SIN govt acknowledged in Nov that Morgan Guaranty is the custodian for the GIC securities, and that Ince & Co. was set up by Morgan to hold the shares in its custody. 

Morgan Guaranty Trust Bank, investing yet other funds on behalf of clients, is the largest core shareholder (foll by the GIC) of the Myanmar Fund at 42%, according to a fund report. This means that together, the Singaporean regime's GIC and Morgan Guaranty Trust Bank have been in control of 63% of the Myanmar Fund and its co-investments with the corporation chaired by drug baron Lo Hsing Han. (The GIC shares re-listed as Ince & Co have shifted hands once again. In a February document obtained by The Nation, the fund reported transfer of the Ince & Co. shares to another company, Hare & Co. In telephone interviews, spokesmen for the Myanmar Fund, the GIC and Morgan Guaranty refused to provide information about the identity or purpose of the new custodial company.)

Dining with the devil SINGAPORE'S dealings with Lo Hsing Han and Steven Law continue to expand unabated. Singapore's GIC investment in the Myanmar Fund increased by 4.3% in 96. In Rangoon, the Traders Hotel celebrated its official opening last Nov. At the opening ceremony, attended by Singapore's Amb and graced with an appearance by Lo himself, presiding SLORC minister publicly thanked both Steven Law and the government of Singapore for paving the road for a smooth business partnership. "I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the government of Singapore," he said, "without whose support and encouragement there would be very few Singaporean businessmen in our country."

Since then, ground has been broken on the construction of Sinmardev, a new, $207 million industrial park and port on the outskirts of Rangoon. A Singaporean consortium is the leader in a joint venture with the SLORC, the Myanmar Fund, Lo's family co and a slew of intl shareholders. The Myanmar Fund holds a 10 percent interest in Sinmardev. Singaporean entrepreneur Albert Hong, head of Sinmardev, described the project as the largest foreign investment in Burma outside the energy field. 

"Singapore is more involved with Lo than any other country, because that's basically where Steven Law is functioning out of when he's not in Burma," observes a US narcotics official. 

Singapore's rulers continue to deny any wrongdoing in connection with their relationship to Asia World. "It is fairly far-fetched, trying to link the Singaporean govt and drug traffickers," said emb spokesperson Jean Tan.

"Nonsense," says Singapore's former solicitor general Francis Seow, now a research fellow at the East Asian Legal Studies Program of Harvard Law School. The former close associate of Lee Kuan Yew says he knows "through personal experience" that Lee micro-manages every aspect of Singaporean political, economic and social policy.

Dr Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party and a leader of Singapore's political opposition, was labeled a traitor for raising the drug issue in Singapore. "Drug peddlers are routinely hanged in Singapore for carrying heroin," wrote Chee, in a rare and courageous act of public protest in response to a documentary that aired on Australian television last year, Singapore Sling. "And where are all these drugs coming from? Drug lords like Lo Hsing Han are the big-time pushers aided by the SLORC generals." "Is this not hypocrisy at its worst?" he asked.

"The Singapore government knows it's having dinner with the devil, and sharing a very short spoon," says Seow. "And it is a terrible double standard. Drug moneys are being laundered apparently by the same drug lords who supply the heroin for which small-time drug dealers are hanged. We are reaping profits as Burma's biggest investor, but we're being paid with blood money."