THE Golden Triangle

Growing up in South Florida in the 1970s, we used to go to Gold Triangle to buy things like TV sets. It was right next to the big Dadeland movie theater, which succumbed to cineplexes and mall expansion in the 1990s. Sigh. However, there is at least one other reference to Gold(en) Triangles out there, that being the more commonly known one worldwide: the area where Thailand, Buram, and Laos come together. The Golden Triangle is best known for being a major center for growing poppies, i.e. ground zero for opium production!

The area is very hilly, lush, and crisscrossed by rivers, most notably the Mekong River that generally flows East, winding around from Burma into Laos, forming the border between Laos and Thailand, eventually heading into Vietnam, which is where most 'mericans have heard of it. Due to the remoteness of the area, the lack of roads, the poverty and marginalization of the ethnic minorities ("hill tribes" like the Hmong, Akha, Karen, and others), and--let us not forget--the greed and desires of humans, particularly Europeans, opium found a major home in the Golden Triangle.

While the narcotic poppy is native to this area, predictably it took Europeans to turn what was a widely-used and ancient medicine into a recreational, highly addictive drug in order to reap massive profits. The English grew huge quantities in greater India and shipped it into China to make scads of money. When the Chinese tried to ban it due to the disastrous economic and health costs, the Brits fought a war to force the Chinese to keep it legal. The Opium Wars.

More recently, foreigners turned the Golden Triangle into an opium production area. To the chagrin of the US Army's high command, lots of it was sold into the willing arms of GIs stuck in the quagmire of the Vietnam War.

We also got to tour the info-heavy, super-educational Hall of Opium, a museum dedicated to the history of the drug. I also was told by several older Thai Rotarians that less than twenty years ago, you could buy opium in the Burmese border town where my friends bought pirated designer handbags and that it was not uncommon to pay a portion of workers' wages in opium!