The Opium Trade in the Wa Area of the Golden Triangle

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This study will examine the social organization and social processes of opium cultivation, heroin production, drug use, and drug distribution within an area of the Golden Triangle, which consists of the area where the borders of Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and Laos meet. In particular, the project will examine the history, culture, and political economy of the Wa area and explore the factors that have caused it to become a major opium-growing area. The project will explore the key players on the supply side of the drug trade and the dynamics of supply, organizational patterns of the global heroin trade (i.e., hierarchical structure or adaptive networks), and the social and political conditions that foster the drug trade. Data will be collected through extensive fieldwork in a major opium-producing area, the Wa territory of Burma, plus face--to-face interviews with opium growers, opium/heroin traders, and opium/heroin users. Other subjects to be interviewed include Wa soldiers and officers, Wa leaders, and Asian and U.S. law enforcement authorities. Findings from this study will inform the public, as well as government and drug enforcement officials, on little-known aspects of the drug trade in the Golden Triangle and help policymakers to develop more effective measures to reduce the production of opium and the refining and trafficking of heroin.