Word: opium
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...prosecution of Fournier. At one point, Herbert Stern, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, flew to Paris to discuss the case. Relations between the U.S. and France have been strained over drug traffic; American narcotics experts estimate that 80% of the heroin brought to the U.S. is purified from raw opium in clandestine laboratories around Marseille. John Cusack, the chief American narcotics agent in Europe, had criticized the French for protecting hoodlums running the drug traffic in France. The French stiffly replied that the U.S. is looking for a scapegoat on which to blame its narcotics problems; they take credit...
KABUL: Caravans traveling between Afghanistan and Pakistan "commonly carry up to 1,200 pounds of opium at a time...
...poppies produced per year, however, only about 60 tons reach legal collection stations. Practically none of the crop is used for domestic narcotics production: the Turks themselves have never had an addiction problem of any consequence. Instead, some 90 tons of poppies are exported illegally, in the form of opium gum, primarily to Marseille. There, well-financed hoodlums-many of them Corsicans-supervise its refinement into morphine base and heroin for shipment to the U.S. Of all the heroin currently reaching the U.S. with disastrous effects, 80% is believed to originate in Turkey...
...create difficult domestic problems for Turkey, but it was taken in the interest of the international community. When we in the U.S. have so many teen-agers dying of heroin addiction in our cities, we particularly appreciate Turkey's action, and we hope that other nations involved [in opium production] will show the same sense of international responsibility...
...Turkish decision may well prove to be the most important step yet taken in controlling the import of heroin into the U.S. But its lasting effectiveness will depend on the ability of the U.S. to persuade the other major opium producers-notably Burma, Thailand, Laos and Afghanistan-to take similar action...