Word: opium
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...with any social habit, all kinds of people use drugs for all kinds of reasons. One obvious age-old drive is the simple impulse to feel good. Like the neolithic men who got high on fermented berries and the Assyrians who sucked opium lozenges, explains Dr. Sidney Cohen of NIMH, a noted drug researcher, today's drug takers "are bored, in pain, frustrated, unable to enjoy, or alienated, and some plant or substance carries with it the promise of oblivion, surcease, quietude, togetherness, or euphoria." Says one Chicago college student who smokes
Although marijuana and opium are technically illegal in Mexico, the Mexican government has been reluctant to beef up its unsophisticated mini-force of 40 drug agents, who are so poorly paid that they are easy prey to the Mexican ethos of mordida (the bite, or payoff). Operation Intercept may discourage the amateurs who smuggle hemp across the border on major highways. It will probably have little effect on the professionals who dominate the trade. As a knowledgeable Texas border scout points out, "There are areas out there where a small army could cross without detection...
Operation Intercept will use pursuit planes, torpedo boats, hugely increased forces of border officials, and devices that can detect fields of marijuana and opium poppies from...
...revenue and $25 million in profits. Because of the risks involved in peddling drugs directly, Cosa Nostra once again contracts the retail trade to its sharecroppers, saving for itself the less dangerous and infinitely more profitable role of importer and wholesaler. The sums involved are substantial. By the time opium from Turkey, the chief supplier for the U.S., is processed into heroin and shipped to New York, it is worth about $225,000 per kilogram. The price to society is beyond measure...
...there was at least a rare moment of light relief. Thanh Le, the chief Hanoi spokesman, complained at a press briefing that Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky want to keep U.S. troops in South Viet Nam so that they can continue to get rich on traffic in opium and cinnamon. Cinnamon? "Ah," Le explained, "South Viet Nam's cinnamon is the finest in the world, and when mixed properly is a powerful aphrodisiac. It is much in demand." It was the first appearance of sex in 14 months of negotiations...