by Martin Booth
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraphs
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Chapter 1 – Raw Opium
Chapter 2 – The Discovery of Dreams
Chapter 3 – Pleasure-domes in Xanadu
Chapter 4 – Poverty, Potions and Poppy-heads
Chapter 5 – Heroic Substances
Chapter 6 – God’s Own Medicine
Chapter 7 – The Fantasy Traders
Chapter 8 – The Government of Opium
Chapter 9 – Coolies and Conferences
Chapter 10 – Junkies and the Living Dead
Chapter 11 – DORA, Isabella and Olivia
Chapter 12 – Carpets, Condoms and Cats
Chapter 13 – Enter the Mobster
Chapter 14 – Soldiers and Secrets
Chapter 15 – Warlords, Barons and Laundrymen
Chapter 16 – Bacteria and The $1,000,000 Bathtub
Bibliography
Index
Also by Martin Booth
Copyright
Opiate—an unlocked door in the prison of identity. It leads into the jail yard.
—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.
—Jean Cocteau
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to a large number of people for their considerable assistance, support and encouragement in the researching and writing of this book. To the following I offer my heartfelt gratitude for, without them, the task could not have been completed: Dr Terry Boyce of the University of Hong Kong; Dr Ingrid Hook and the staff of the Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, Trinity College, Dublin; the librarian and staff of the University of Hong Kong Library; John Keep, H.M. Customs & Excise, London; A. Renouf, H.M. Customs & Excise, Jersey; J.L.S. Keesing, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew; Dr Neil Bruce of the Institute of Biotechnology, Cambridge University; Dr Brigid Allen, the Archivist, Jesus College, Oxford; Jeffrey Robinson; Kevin Laurie of the Police Tactical Unit, Royal Hong Kong Police; William L. Ruzzamenti, Office of Congressional & Public Affairs, the US Department of Justice; Vera Savko of the Mayor’s Office, St Petersburg; Roger Lewis of the Centre for HIV/AIDS and Drugs Studies, Edinburgh; Superintendent Clive Tricker and Sen. Insp. Ricky Fung Hing-nam of the Narcotics Bureau, Royal Hong Kong Police; Maureen Sheehan, the Poppy Advisory and Control Board, Tasmania; Dr Harry Payne and David Mercer of MacFarlan Smith, Ltd; the Intelligence Division of the US Drug Enforcement Administration; Cathay Pacific Airways; John Powell, Somerset County Libraries; Murray Pollinger, my literary agent and a large number of people in Britain, the USA, Hong Kong, Thailand, Russia and Eastern Europe who operate at the barricades of the war against heroin and other drugs and who, for security reasons, must remain anonymous, but who have my considerable admiration.
Finally, my wife Helen whose considerable skill and research assistance, patience, forbearance and months before a computer monitor were utterly invaluable and without which this book would not have been written.
Foreword
In 1398, the following words were translated from the writings of John de Trevisa: ‘Of popy comyth iuys that physycyens callyth Opium other Opion’. Approximately two years later, in Lanfrank’s Science of cirugie, appeared the advice, ‘It is not yuel to putte a litil opium to þe oile of þe rosis’. What the physicians used opium for, or what good it did when mixed with oil of roses, was not stated until Jerome of Brunswick published his The noble experyence of the vertuous handyworke of surgeri. Translated into English in 1525, it contained an early reference to opium as a medicinal drug: ‘Whan the payne is grete, then it is nedefull to put therto a lytell Opium’.
Few nouns can be more evocative than opium. Derived from the ancient Greek for the sap of the poppy pod, it has moved a long way from its original innocent meaning. It simultaneously conjures up exotic images of murky drug dens filled with besotted addicts, white slavers and Fu Manchu-like fiends, maudlin and tubercular Romantic poets and, by association, alleyways across the cities of the world littered with discarded hypodermic needles, trained sniffer dogs going over airline baggage, haggard youths shooting up heroin in public lavatory cubicles, AIDS sufferers and prostitutes, mafiosi, drug barons riding in sleek limousines, machine-gun-toting smugglers, street-corner peddlers and Hollywood gangster movies.
To an addict, opium and its derivatives are the raw substance of dreams, the means of escape from reality and temporary entry into heaven – or at least another place apart from the here and now: it is also slave-master, cruel mistress and possessive lover. For narcotics agents, law enforcement or customs officers, opium is the source of the evil by the hunting down of which they earn a salary and may lose their life. To politicians and their secret service operatives, it is the ideal substance of subversion and political instability. Those dedicated to the eradication of drugs from society regard it as being just as much their raison d’être, their quest, even their holy grail, as it is the junkie’s: they both search for it with a zealot’s avidity. For the racketeer, opium is a means to considerable wealth for a comparatively low capital outlay. And there are those who find it has other uses: poisoners kill with it and have done so since at least Roman times; terrorists finance mayhem with it; urban crime is fuelled by it; arms dealers use it as a form of currency and governments are either blackmailed by it or employ it to corrupt or to apply pressure to other administrations, nations or political adversaries. Opium (in the form of heroin) accounts for an illicit multi-national trade which is larger than that of many countries.
In short, society is undermined – some might say underpinned – by opium.
Yet for all these detrimental aspects, opium has a benign side. The economies of some countries depend upon it, the opium harvest being all that stands between social stability and political overthrow, well-being and disease or starvation. Many a Third World peasant farmer regards opium as a steady, reliable, easily grown and harvested cash crop. For the terminal cancer patient, opium and its derivatives afford a blessed relief from the tortures and indignities of pain. Even a passing headache can be eradicated by an opiate bought over the counter of many a pharmacist’s shop.
In other words, opium and its derivatives are all things to all men and have been so for centuries.
The story of opium goes back well before the nineteenth century invention of heroin, opium clippers riding the South China Sea, the discovery of morphine, poets habituated to laudanum, the rudimentary pharmacology of the Middle Ages and the political machinations of ambitious Roman murderers. It has its origins in the start of human society and its use almost certainly pre-dates civilisation. In fact, there seems little doubt that opium was one of the first medicinal substances known to mankind.
1
Raw Opium
The opium poppy is botanically classified as Papaver somniferum. The genus is named from the Greek noun for a poppy, the species from the Latin word meaning ‘sleep inducing’: it was Linnaeus, the father of botany, who first classified it in his book Genera Plantarum in 1753. Like many of his contemporaries, and generations before him, he was well aware of its capabilities.
The plant has a dubious history. Some horticulturists consider it evolved naturally, but there ar
e others who claim it is a cultivor developed by century upon century of careful human cultivation. Another theory is that it is a naturally mutated plant which evolved because of a quirk of climate or altitude. This is not far-fetched for plants will take on atypical forms in unique conditions: the cannabis trees of Bhutan prove the point. No one can be certain.
Although there is no positive proof, it is thought P. somniferum may have evolved, or been generated, either from the wild poppy, Papaver setigerum, which contains small amounts of opium and which indigenously grows throughout the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, or from a poppy native to Asia Minor.
To many not specifically engaged in its cultivation, the poppy is either an ornamental flower with a delicate beauty or a simple, scarlet blossom growing wild in the cereal fields of Europe, an image for the blood spilled in the trenches of the First World War. In fact, it comes from a large botanical family of 28 genera and over 250 individual species, most of which grow in the temperate and sub-tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Many popular varieties have been specifically cultivated: the bush and tree poppies, the Welsh poppy, the blue and Syrian tulip poppies, the alpine poppy, the sub-arctic Iceland poppy, the Californian poppy. Even the opium poppy itself may be found in borders and displays in well-kept gardens, albeit illegally in most countries. In its wild state, the poppy is a single bloom but double flowers and specialist blooms with serrated and fringed petals have also been bred in a multitude of colours: the most exquisite are two variations of the opium poppy, the Pink Chiffon and the Pæony-flowered Mixed. Several species, such as the Oriental poppy from Asia Minor, are perennials.
Of all these species, only P. somniferum and P. bracteatum produce opium in any significant amount, although the latter is not used at present as a commercial drug source but is sometimes grown as a decorative blossom from which a number of hybrids have derived.
Papaver somniferum is an annual with a growth cycle of approximately 120 days. It requires a rich, well-cultivated soil and, in the wild, is more likely to flourish in recently dug or ploughed ground, hence its presence in farm fields and, traditionally, by cart tracks and animal droves. The best growing climate is temperate, warm with low humidity and not too much rainfall during early growth. Ideally, although it will grow in clay or sandy clay, the best soil is a sandy loam which retains nutrients and moisture and is not too hard for the delicate early roots to penetrate. Both excessive and insufficient rainfall affect growth: too much moisture causes waterlogging and, if the soil is not properly drained, the plants will quickly die whilst dull, cloudy weather or excessive rain in days thirty to ninety of the growth period will reduce the opium-producing capabilities. Sunlight is especially important. The opium poppy is a ‘long day’ photo-responsive plant which means it will not produce blooms unless it has grown through a period of long days and short nights, preferably with direct sunlight at least twelve hours daily.
These requirements aside, the plant is easy to grow. It does not require irrigation unless it is in danger of drying out, demands no expensive fertilisers, has few pests or ailments and, therefore, requires no insecticides or fungicides.
The seeds (about the size of a pin-head) are naturally sown by the pod blowing in the breeze and shaking like a pepper-pot, the contents scattering. When deliberately set, they are either broadcast or dropped in rows of shallow holes made by a stick or dibber, the timing of the sowing depending heavily upon local seasonal and climatic conditions. About 500 grams of seed are sown to half a hectare. The seeds may range over a wide variety of colours from white through yellow to brown, grey or black, the coloration not being relevant to the eventual blossom. Other cash crops, such as beans, peas or tobacco, may be planted alongside the poppy: these do not hinder it and are usually only a means of obtaining a higher return from the same area of land.
The seeds germinate quickly in warm, moist conditions and, within six weeks, the plant is established by which time it vaguely resembles a young cabbage with glaucous, green leaves with a dull grey or bluish tint. By eight weeks, it reaches a height of about 60 centimetres and consists of a main stem the upper portion of which (the peduncle) bears no leaves or secondary stems. Below the peduncle, secondary stems (called tillers) may appear from leaf bases where they join the main stem. Apart from the peduncle, the stems are frequently covered with hairs.
As the plant matures, it grows to a height of between 90 and 150 centimetres, the leaves appearing alternately, those on the main stem being oblong, tooth-edged and between 10 and 40 centimetres long. The main stem and each tiller ends in a single flower bud. As these develop, the ends of the peduncle and tillers extend and bend over to form a distinctive hook shape, the young buds suspended upside down. However, as the buds mature the stems straighten, the main bud at the head of the peduncle pointing upwards. Within two days of becoming vertical, the sepals of the bud – which are the same colour as the leaves – open and the flower blooms. In ideal conditions, the main blossom appears around the ninetieth day from germination.
At first, it appears crumpled, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, but the four petals quickly expand and smoothen, each marginally overlapping the other. Their colour may vary from plant to plant. Traditionally, opium poppies are white but they may just as readily be pink, crimson, weakly purple or a variegation of these with the colour darker at the petal base. Inside the flower is a ring of anthers on top of what will become the pod. Fertilisation is carried out by insects.
The flower is short-lived. In two to four days the petals drop, exposing a small, round pod the size of a large pea. This rapidly grows and may become ovoid or globular when mature, it is the size of a small hen’s egg with a diameter of between 5 and 7.5 centimetres. It is bluish green with a slightly waxy appearance, the top surrounded by a small crown from which the stigmas rise. Where the pod joins the peduncle is a ring of petal base scars.
The pod is made of an outer skin enclosing the wall of the ovary, which is made up of three layers, and cavities or segments separated by seed-producing walls. The seeds, of which one pod may produce over 1000, are reniform in shape with distinct reticulations. When mature, they are loose in the pod before dispersal through small holes which open just under the crown.
The opium poppy has two main products: one, the seeds, is quite innocuous whilst the other, opium, is infamously insidious.
The word ‘opium’ is misleading, implying the substance is a single chemical compound whereas it is an elaborate cocktail containing sugars, proteins, ammonia, latex, gums, plant wax, fats, sulphuric and lactic acids, water, meconic acid and a wide range of alkaloids. The significant parts are the alkaloids.
An alkaloid is a highly complex organic base (an alkali) with the common characteristic properties of containing nitrogen, of being basic and forming salts and water with acids, found in plants and having a characteristically bitter taste. Over fifty have been identified in opium, the most important being morphine (from which heroin can be made), noscapine, papaverine, codeine and thebaine. They appear partially or loosely chemically bonded to meconic add, the presence of which can be used as a test to detect opium.
In its raw state, opium is the dried latex or juice of the seed pod which is also known as the capsule, bulb or poppy-head. It is an opaque, milky sap which, although found throughout the plant, concentrates the active ingredients in the pod.
Until recently, it was unknown how the poppy manufactured such a complex chemical as an alkaloid. It is now accepted that the substances are actually created in the lactifers (cells which produce the latex), possibly from the synthesis of albumen: the mechanism, however, is still undiscovered. Furthermore, opium is only produced during a ten-to-twelve-day period when the pod is ripening. Once it has reached maturity, the alkaloids are no longer made and are broken down in time.
Why the plant goes through such a process is unknown. Theories abound. One suggests the alkaloids are essential to the formation of the seeds. Another proposes they ar
e a form of deterrent against animal pests. The most intriguing propounds that the plant has developed opium simply to ensure humans maintain it in cultivation, an elaborate and incredibly ingenious example of symbiosis.
Harvesting opium is an exhausting, back-breaking and labour-intensive process which can really only be done by hand and requires knowledge, experience and dexterity. Little changed for centuries, it is obtained by tapping the individual pods.
The harvest begins about two weeks after the petals have dropped. The opium farmer first examines the pod and erect crown. By now, the pod will have lost its grey-green colour and darkened. If the points of the crown are standing straight out or curving upwards, the pod is ready. Not all the pods in a field will mature at the same time so the farmer has to keep a close daily eye on his whole crop over a period of some weeks.
Today, the tapping tool is generally a specialised knife consisting of a set of three or four parallel steel or glass blades mounted on a handle. This is run vertically over two or three sides of the pod. If the blades cut too deeply into the pod wall, the opium will flow too quickly and drip to the earth where it will be lost. Furthermore, deep incisions will cause it to weep internally and injure the pod, cutting off production within the lactifers and preventing the seeds from developing. The pod will then shrivel and die. If the cuts are too shallow, the flow will be too slow and harden on the pod wall, sealing the cut like a scab. The ideal depth for a cut is 1–1.5 millimetres, achieved by setting the tapping knife blades.
The tapping (also known as scoring or lancing) is sometimes carried out in the late afternoon in the hope that the opium will ooze out overnight and coagulate slowly on the surface of the pod. If the tapping is carried out when the sun is still high, the heat of the sunlight can dry up the first sap to appear which then closes the wounds: however, in some countries, the collection of sap is done at midday, the sun’s heat actually encouraging the milky sap to trickle out.