| |
Opium, the sap of the opium poppy. Bitter, brownish, sticky ” and highly addictive. Its exotic and literary associations have ensured the continuing aura of mystery that has long surrounded it. But the impact of opium extends beyond tales of personal pleasure or misery ” it is a story played out on an international stage: major powers, local warlords. insurgent armies and national governments. All have a stake in the continuing story that is illicit opium production.
Leading expert Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy sets out to expose the politics of opium. In particular he explores the world`s two major regions for illicit production of opium and heroin ” the Golden Triangle of Burma, Laos and Thailand and the Golden Crescent of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. These remote mountainous regions of Southeast and Southwest Asia produce more than 90 per cent of the world`s illicit opium. Chouvy reveals how, when and why illicit opium production emerged and what sustains it. He exposes the real drivers of the modern day trade in opium and shows why a century of international effort, and forty years of a US-led war on drugs, have failed to eradicate it.
The result is a compelling account of our continuing fascination with a narcotic as old as humanity itself and a powerful insight into the complexities and difficulties of the politics and economics of the poppy in Asia and the world today.
ISBN-9781845119737
|
| |
Pages : 264
|