Medellín, Pablo Escobar, MS-13, Mexico. These are the names that so abundantly induce the association whenever we hear the d-word — drugs. Overly ready in fact to cite examples from Colombia or the Mexican cartels whenever the topic is brought up. What stays behind the curtain of attention however is the Asian spot in Myanmar. The spot where the cultivation of narcotics has led to the most commercially successful for impressively long. This is called the Golden Triangle. Centered between Myanmar, Thailand, and northern Laos — the triangle covers a generous portion of land. Its proximity with other states in the French Indochina region factored much into its commercial success. It enjoys a comfortably close reach for the Middle East — which they could capitalize on at the moment, their rival, Afghanistan’s opium trade weakens.

The region has been one of the largest opium-producing areas of the world since the Chinese communists’ victory in the late 1940s. After the civil war, Maoist China ordered the regulation of the Opium trade and tasked itself with the compulsory treatment of ten million addicts, execution of dealers, and replacement of opium with new crops. This effectively led to shifting the opium trade monopoly from the Chinese to the Burmese peoples via the Kuomintang. It led to the Shan state of Myanmar dominating the global opium trade henceforth.

An important narco-figure named Khun Sa played a tremendous role in lionizing the triangle as the Opium heartland. He was practically the opium king from 1976 to 1996 — even designated by an American ambassador as the worst enemy the world has. Khun was an illiterate man. A soldier who’s lucky to have received military training from the KMT when they lost the war. He formed his band within the KMT, grew it, and eventually seceded from the party.

From 1974–1994, Khun Sa became the dominant opium warlord in the Golden Triangle. The share of heroin sold in New York originating from the Golden Triangle rose from 5% to 80% during this period, making him essentially wealthy. Khun Sa stacked his money from blood-derived profits. Such enabled him to purchase weapons from the black market. And that’s how he got his personal army to be better advanced than the Tatmadaw.

Somewhen in 1971, veteran U.S. diplomat Marshall Green, coined the term “Golden Triangle” in a press conference on the opium trade in French Indochina. He served as an official U.S. ambassador for Seoul and Indonesia; and witnessed the 1960 April Revolution and the Transition to the New Order regime, respectively. At the time of Nixon’s administration from 1969–1974, he performed ample background work for Nixon’s visit to China and accompanied the head of state. He was the one who named the drug-trafficking-infested region.

Khun died in 2007, in Yangon, seventy three-years-old. The cause of death was not known. Four days after his death, he was cremated. Khun was honored by the local Burmese in the Shan state as he built the first paved roads in the area, the first school, and a well-equipped, 60-bed hospital staffed by Chinese doctors. He did use his drug money for “giving back”.

Papaver somniferum is the only species of the plant that can achieve the most potent high. The opium poppy grows wild in Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia. It is believed that it originated in the Mediterranean region. This is the only plant that we can extract significant amounts of opium from. Which induces a combination of analgesia and narcosis. Pain relief and a state of drowsiness and stupor. The same milky fluid latex can be processed into morphine, and then further processed to synthesize heroin. These flowering plants, when their tissues are lacerated, mobilize milky latex to the site of injury. They act as an immediate chemical defense immediately present to defend themselves from herbivores.

Morphine is the primary component that achieves the user most of its high. In 1804, it was isolated from opium by German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner. Five decades later, the hypodermic needle was refined by Alexander Wood and others. This made the administration of morphine expand to subcutaneous and intravenous means, as opposed to just oral administration.

The compound, hailed as a capital A drug for its analgesic purpose, is highly addictive. Due to this, it has become widely used among cancer patients to mollify their intense nerve, bone, and organ pain. It can effectuate narcosis for the user which means it could help people sleep, and other benefits such as control of coughing and diarrhea. The benefits were too great to overlook. Thus it was used in the American Civil War to extensively treat soldiers. Precautions of its addictiveness weren’t well known which meant it was casually prescribed by doctors; dispensed without many pharmaceutical restrictions.

Opiates of great potency, when administered, must be followed by Methadone to counter withdrawal, e.g., hallucinations, seizures, diarrhea, etc. When abused frequently and not met by preventative measures to counter withdrawal, it may cause fever and fatigue for weeks. This unbearable pain makes for continued use tempting (to relieve the pain), initiating a devastating cycle of dependence.

There is a Western fixation on Mexico and Colombia in narcotics conversations. We are witnessing an imbalanced perception that they are the only ones who dominate the drug trafficking sphere. Due to the Golden Triangle’s commercial influence in states like New York, dominating their opium market share, the region, and Khun Sa must be made an illuminating account of — a biography, documentary. Thus their impact on drug history remains unforgotten.

Today, Myanmar still one of the most dangerous, unvisitable states in Asia, still suffers from the tail effects of Opium trafficking. As of December 2024, Myanmar remains a leading source of opium and heroin, according to a United Nations issue. The state remains ostensibly irredeemable to its military’s human rights violations against the Rohingya genocide, the oppression of the Karen and Kachin peoples, the 2021 military coup, and the narco-economic state in place.

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United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2024, December). Myanmar remains a world’s leading source of opium and heroin.

McCoy, A. W. (2003). The politics of heroin: CIA complicity in the global drug trade (rev. ed.). Lawrence Hill Books.

Chouvy, P.-A. (2009). Opium: Uncovering the politics of the poppy. Harvard University Press.

Booth, M. (1996).Opium: A history. St. Martin’s Press.

DeGrandpre, R. (2006). The cult of pharmacology: How America became the world’s most troubled drug culture. Duke University Press.

Musto, D. F. (1999). The American disease: Origins of narcotic control (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Hamilton, A. (2022).“Khun Sa: Opium Warlord of the Golden Triangle.” In Asian Crime Biographies, 12(3), 55–72.