Word: opium
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Desperately poor, Laos abuts the Golden Triangle, a notorious opium-growing region. One of Laos' more furtive tourist attractions, despite attempts to crack down on the drug trade, is pizza and other Western foods laced with marijuana or other drugs. In some backpacker cafés, for instance, so-called happy food gets its kick from illicit materials. At the same time, drug convictions in Laos warrant heavy punishments, with the death penalty applicable for cases involving more than 500 grams of heroin. (However, the Laotian government says no one has been executed on such a drug conviction since...
...idea how the drugs found their way into her possession. The backpacker trail in Southeast Asia is rife with rumors of regional airport officials sneaking drugs into unsuspecting travelers' bags in exchange for bribes, but the veracity of such tales is hard to prove. (Read "Burma's Opium Production Back on Rise...
...when he was first indicted for drug-smuggling. Over the next 18 years he built what federal officials described as Mexico's biggest drug-trafficking empire, one that dealt directly with Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar to move cocaine. Félix Gallardo also began to grow marijuana and opium - the raw ingredient for heroin - on Mexican soil. There were 15 arrest warrants with his name on them in Mexico and others in the United States before Mexican federal agents finally nabbed the capo without firing a shot in 1989. "Félix Gallardo had become the most wanted drug trafficker...
...Chandlers have prospered since this city became a hub for maritime trade in the early nineteenth century. Before the arrival of the steamship, when three-masted clippers sailed between India and China with cargoes of tea, silver and opium, Singapore was a midway point and a place to drop anchor during the stormy monsoons. Under British colonial rule Singapore developed into a free port where import and export duties were scrapped and passing ships could cheaply purchase all their rigging, provisions, and bunker oil. As the industry grew, the figure of the ship chandler passed into Singapore's literary lore...
Meanwhile, Iran has become the main entrepot for opium-based drugs produced in Afghanistan. The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime estimates it is home to 1.7 million opiate addicts, a burden that Iran and the West have a mutual incentive in combating. As part of the new tone from Washington, President Obama's Afghan strategy calls for a regional approach to secure Afghanistan, one that would be disadvantaged by Iranian non-participation. NATO partners are pushing for direct engagement with Tehran, possibly through a "contact group...