The Golden Triangle [electronic resource] : inside Southeast Asia's drug trade / Ko-lin Chin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chin, Ko-lin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drug traffic--Burma--Shan State.

Drug traffic.

Drug traffic--Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia).

Wa (Asian people)--Commerce.

Wa (Asian people).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (294 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Golden Triangle region that joins Burma, Thailand, and Laos is one of the global centers of opiate and methamphetamine production. Opportunistic Chinese businessmen and leaders of various armed groups are largely responsible for the manufacture of these drugs. The region is defined by the apparently conflicting parallel strands of criminality and efforts at state building, a tension embodied by a group of individuals who are simultaneously local political leaders, drug entrepreneurs, and members of heavily armed militias. Ko-lin Chin, a Chinese American criminologist who was born and raised in Burma, conducted five hundred face-to-face interviews with poppy growers, drug dealers, drug users, armed group leaders, law-enforcement authorities, and other key informants in Burma, Thailand, and China. The Golden Triangle provides a lively portrait of a region in constant transition, a place where political development is intimately linked to the vagaries of the global market in illicit drugs. Chin explains the nature of opium growing, heroin and methamphetamine production, drug sales, and drug use. He also shows how government officials who live in these areas view themselves not as drug kingpins, but as people who are carrying the responsibility for local economic development on their shoulders.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Into the Thick of It

1. The Golden Triangle and Burma

2. The Wa

3. The Opium Trade

4. Heroin Production and Trafficking

5. The Methamphetamine Business

6. Drug Use

7. Drug Control

8. The Business and Politics of Drugs

Appendix: Names in Pinyin Romanization and Other Spellings

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8014-5843-9

OCLC:

630718424