-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.envirolink.org/oneworld/seek/deamon/index.html Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.envirolink.org/oneworld/seek/deamon/index.html">OneWorld Magazine - Opium: Dealing with the Dem…</A> ----- OneWorld Magazine presents EXPLORING THE EXPANDING GLOBAL EPIDEMIC OF ADDICTION, THE UNDERLYING FORCES THAT HAVE BEEN AT WORK IN THE DRUG TRADE FROM THE OPIUM WARS THROUGH THE WAR ON DRUGS. ===== OneWorld Magazine presents DEALING WITH THE DEMON An Aspire Films Production USE AND TRADE IN OPIATES It's now nearly 90 years since the first international attempts were taken to control ilicit drugs in 1909 at Shanghai. Today the world is facing levels of heroin production unprecedented in recent history, ten times higher than the last "plague" of the 1970's. Heroin has now become a global commodity insinuating its way into much of the third world and the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Opium Harvest. The ripe bulbs are lacerated, the sap congeals overnight and is scooped off the following day. Dealing with the Demon is a three part series which examines how this came to be and what can be done about it. Each film interweaves contemporary human stories with crucial scenes from the history of the drug trade which has now grown to become the second largest industry in the world. This series provides the hidden background which is essential to understanding the global nature of the drug trade and the ongoing debate about what to do about ilicit drugs in society. Filmed in fifteen different countries (in Asia, United States, Australia and Europe) at considerable risk to the filmmakers, Dealing with the Demon is a compeling view of one of the darkest aspects of recent history. CREDITS Directed by Chris Hilton and David Roberts Written and produced by Chris Hilton Researched by Lesley Holden Edited by Kim Moodie Photographed by Simon Smith and Tony Wilson Original Music composed by Scott Sounders With songs by Lou Reed and Billie Holiday. An Aspire Films Production financed by the Australian Film Corporation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The story that is revealed, follows the simple but expedient formula that drugs (and other long term problems like Islamic terrorism) took a back seat when the priority was winning a war against the evil Soviet Empire. At its more complex level, the story of heroin in the Golden Crescent involves connections between the CIA, the ISI, Mujahideen, the collapsed BCCI bank and Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OneWorld Magazine presents DEALING WITH THE DEMON An Aspire Films Production THE SEEDS OF WAR: This episode traces the growth of the international drug trade and the failure of the US led process of international prohibition to contain it. The government of the United States, through the CIA provided more than $2 billion in military aid to the Mujahideen of Afghanistan to fight the Soviet occupation of their country. This military sponsorship was directed at certain Afghan resistance leaders, those who were thought to be most effective on the battlefield. In effect the CIA (with advice from the ISI in Pakistan) made the current "kings" of Afghanistan, who now squander their country as they battle each other for control in a civil war. The anti-western Islamic politics of these "kings", especially Gulbuddin Hekmatyer and their involvement in the drug trade were not considered relevant issues for the period from 1979 to 1988. Dealing with the Demon is a history of the use and trade in opiates. The first film opens with this years bumper opium harvest in Afghanistan and links this to the recent rise of heroin use in the United States. It provides the contemporary launching point for an inquiry into history which takes us to the former British opium factory on the banks of the Ganges and through the archives of Persia and China. The patent medicine craze in the west spawned mass addiction which led to the beginnings of international control at Shanghai establishing patterns of drug policy that have been unbroken since. The story of opium and heroin then recedes into the shadows of crime and political double dealing with Chiang Kai Shek and the Green Gangs using drug money to fight the communists. This pattern repeated itself again at the frontlines of the Cold War; in South East Asia, (forming the Golden Triangle) and then in South West Asia in the last battle against the Soviet Empire in Afghanistan (forming the Golden Crescent). With the film returning to Afghanistan we conclude that the current world heroin glut is no historical accident. The economic forces and interests that now rule this commodity, place it beyond repression. The story of heroin in the Golden Crescent involves connections between the CIA, the ISI, Mujahideen, the collapsed BCCI bank and Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. Since Shanghai, the US led control process has been obsessed with two aspects; the first, to contain supply in producing countries (rather than to focus on demand) and the second, to enforce strict domestic laws at home by way of setting an example to other countries. We meet some of the legacies of this history in the person of Durad Hanna , a 15 year old jailed for life in a Detroit prison without parole on his first offence and in Kate McKenna, a middle class user in New York who cannot find treatment for her addiction. >From people who are aware of the historical process, there is a strong call to scale down the "war on drugs" and focus on the demand for drugs and reducing the harm that they cause. OneWorld Magazine presents DEALING WITH THE DEMON An Aspire Films Production AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE: This episode examines the relationship between the drug trade and war, detailing the involvement of the CIA in Vietnam and Afghanistan during the Cold War. >From almost zero production before the Afghan/Soviet war began in 1979, the Golden Crescent of Afghanistan and Pakistan has grown into the world's largest producer of heroin. This year it will produce 300 to 500 tons of pure white powder with a wholesale value in the United States of $50 billion. According to State Department figures, there is a current glut in supply, with worldwide production ten times the level it was in the 1970s. despite massive outlays on interdiction and other means to control it. The government of the United States, through the CIA provided more than $2 billion in military aid to the Mujahideen of Afghanistan to fight the Soviet occupation of their country. In the United States it is now well documented that heroin is making a comeback. Until recently, it was sold at only 4% purity but now the average purity of street heroin is often as high as 65%. Smoking this purer heroin is catching on amongst the middle classes, but it's no less addictive than it was during the last heroin scare of the 1970s. Heroin related deaths are up 100% across most of North America. The US is not the only country to be affected, the toll for Pakistan has been devastating with 1.7 million heroin addicts, up from virtually zero before the war. This film takes an in depth look at the current resurgence of heroin use in the United States. It reveals why, during the 1980s. when two presidential war's on drugs were declared to solve a domestic crisis at home, 17 DEA agents based in the US Embassy in Islamabad were powerless as they watched the heroin trade in the Golden Crescent grow and flourish. It investigates why from the beginning of the Afghan/ Soviet war to it's close in 1989, despit e full knowledge of key figures and their drug trading operations no requests for arrests and extraditions were made. It will explore why suddenly in 1990, US Administration officials were forced to acknowledge the drug business sidelines of their allies and begin to seek arrests of some of the Pakistani heroin kingpins who had been on the DEA's list as far back as 1980. This military sponsorship was directed at certain Afghan resistance leaders, those who were thought to be most effective on the battlefield. In effect the CIA (with advice from the ISI in Pakistan) made the current "kings" of Afghanistan, who now squander their country as they battle each other for control in a civil war. The anti-western Islamic politics of these "kings", especially Gulbuddin Hekmatyer and their involvement in the drug trade were not considered relevant issues for the period from 1979 to 1988. "The Afghan drug connection is one of the biggest uncovered stories in the foreign policy arena. The scale and duration of the connection between drug trafficking, gun running and foreign policy are far larger even than the Central American affair". Jack Blum Chief Counsel to the Kerry Senate subcommittee Afghanistan, with its surplus of military hardware and covert operations training is now accused of being a training ground for international terrorists as well as a major source of drugs. Ex CIA operations chief for South Asia Charles Cogan describes the rise of terrorism and drugs as blowback - poisonous fallout drifting back home from faraway battlefields. The first film opens with this years bumper opium harvest in Afghanistan and links this to the recent rise of heroin use in the United States. The story that is revealed, follows the simple but expedient formula that drugs (and other long term problems like Islamic terrorism) took a back seat when the priority was winning a war against the evil Soviet Empire. At its more complex level, the story of heroin in the Golden Crescent involves connections between the CIA, the ISI, Mujahideen, the collapsed BCCI bank and Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. The insights that this film provides into the contemporary US heroin problem have crucial implications for drug control policy and break a major foreign policy story that, because it ran counter to the required byline of "barefoot freedom fighters taking on a superpower", has been left mostly untouched by the media. ===== OneWorld Magazine presents DEALING WITH THE DEMON An Aspire Films Production CONTAINING THE FALLOUT: This episode investigates the spread of heroin use, its role in the fueling the AIDS epidemic in Asia and explores the most effective means of dealing with illicit drugs using Australia as a taste case. The third film focuses on the demand side of the opium and heroin trade looking at the fallout from the South East Asian drug trade. We open with massively increased consumption of heroin in Asia. A remote hill-tribe village in the Golden Triangle demonstrates the ironic and devastating move by villagers away from their traditional opium to the much more dangerous use of heroin, a wide occurrence that is contributing to Asia's massive AIDS epidemic. Heroin related deaths are up 100% across most of North America. The US is not the only country to be affected, the toll for Pakistan has been devastating with 1.7 million heroin addicts, up from virtually zero before the war. The history of the Golden Triangle heroin industry, which began with the Vietnam War provides the key to understanding that western drug diplomacy is partly responsible. We then ask whether the "harm reduction" policies developed in Europe and Australia can be applied in Asia to help contain the HIV/ AIDS epidemic. Harm reduction, with its goals for public health as a whole rather than the elimination of drug use per se is exemplified best by free needle and syringe exchange programs. We then travel to Australia to see the historical evolution of a harm reduction strategy and how it operates. In the United States harm reduction is strongly resisted because it has been labelled as a front for "legalisation". We see an activist arrested for his forty-fourth time in an effort to change the laws so that such programs will be allowed. In the city of Baltimore, where AIDS is largest killer of young men, the mayor, with the police department on side, is taking bold progressive steps for the US context. The historical legacy and the stand that the United States still takes on international drug policy means that the State Department tries to influence other countries away from harm reduction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The insights that this film provides into the contemporary US heroin problem have crucial implications for drug control policy and break a major foreign policy story that, because it ran counter to the required byline of "barefoot freedom fighters taking on a superpower", has been left mostly untouched by the media." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back in Thailand and Vietnam, we find some cause for optimism in the dedicated work of a few people implementing programs that are making a difference. Their steps are also being supported by the government despite diplomatic pressure. Filmed in Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States, Dealing with the Demon is a provocative and timely series which because of its long view, will be essential to understanding the tensions in what will continue to be major international and social issue over the next decade. ===== OneWorld Magazine presents DEALING WITH THE DEMON An Aspire Films Production INTERVIEWEES and CONSULTANTS In the United States it is now well documented that heroin is making a comeback. Until recently, it was sold at only 4% purity but now the average purity of street heroin is often as high as 65%. Smoking this purer heroin is catching on amongst the middle classes, but it's no less addictive than it was during the last heroin scare of the 1970s. Heroin related deaths are up 100% across most of North America. The US is not the only country to be affected, the toll for Pakistan has been devastating with 1.7 million heroin addicts, up from virtually zero before the war. This interview/consultant list is only partial. Georgia Giacomelli, Executive Director United Nations Drug Control Program Mr. Doug Rasmussen, Assistant Secretary for South Asia Narcotics Matters, US State Department Mr Charles Cogan, ex CIA Director of Operations, South Asia CIA officer (name withheld), responsible for setting up US assistance to seven Mujahideen factions CIA officer (name withheld), who authored the recently leaked report on Pakistan's heroin industry Two former senior DEA agents in Islamabad, (name withheld) Dr David Musto, Member of President Carter's White House Strategy Council on Drug Abuse, who warned against the potential for a heroin industry being created at the point of US intervention in the Afghan/Soviet war General Babar, Minister for the Interior in Pakistan, "kingmaker" of the Mujahideen leaders and responsible for rapid arrest and extradition of Ramzi Yusaf, (World Trade Center Bomber) Dilsha Najmuddin, ex Director of the Pakistan Narcotics Control Board Dr Eqbal Ahmad, MaCarthur Foundation Fellow for Peace and National Security Abdul Haq, Mujahideen commander and diplomat who visited President Reagan in the White House and Margaret Thatcher Haji Qadeer, Former Mujahideen commander and now Governor of Nangahar Province in Afghanistan, (major opium producing area). ===== OneWorld Magazine presents DEALING WITH THE DEMON About Aspire Films ASPIRE FILMS 4 Dudley Street, Bondi NSW 2026 Australia Ph: 61 (0) 2 365 4363 Fax: 61 (0) 2 365 4542 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aspire Films is an Australian film and video production company based in Sydney that produces quality documentary programs for Australian and International television. Apart from Australia, our award winning programs have been shown throughout the world on such prestigious stations such as PBS and National Geographic (USA), BBC and Channel Four (UK), Canal Plus and TF1 (France), NHK (Japan) as well as in Scandinavia, Asia and the Middle East. Our films include, The Serpent and The Cross, (AFI Best Documentary Nomination, Golden Gate Award) a film about Aboriginal art. Roads to Xanadu a four part series on the history of technology in China and Japan The Last Husky (Best Mountain Sport Film, Banff Film Festival, Silver Plaque-Chicago International Film Festival) about the last sled dogs in Antarctica Eclipse of the Century, (Winner Westinghouse Award - American Association for the Advancement of Sciences) on the eclipse over Hawaii The Loneliest Mountain, an Antarctic adventure story. Dealing with the Demon, a three one hour films for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the history of the drug trade. ===== OneWorld Magazine presents Directed by Chris Hilton and David Roberts Written and produced by Chris Hilton Researched by Lesley Holden Edited by Kim Moodie Photographed by Simon Smith and Tony Wilson Original Music composed by Scott Sounders With songs by Lou Reed and Billie Holiday. An Aspire Films Production financed by the Australian Film Corporation. Order the video today! Write, Phone, Fax or Email for an order form to: ASPIRE FILMS 4 Dudley Street, Bondi NSW 2026 Australia Ph: 61 (0) 2 9365 4346 Fax: 61 (0) 2 9365 4542 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aspire Films is an Australian film and video production company based in Sydney that produces quality documentary programs for Australian and International television. Apart from Australia, our award winning programs have been shown throughout the world on such prestigious stations such as PBS and National Geographic (USA), BBC and Channel Four (UK), Canal Plus and TF1 (France), NHK (Japan) as well as in Scandinavia, Asia and the Middle East. Ret urn to Dealing With The Demon Text and Images © 1995/96 Aspire Films - All Rights Reserved - OneWorld Magazine is Hosted By The EnviroLink Network - Produced by webStories,Inc. - Copyright © 1996, webStories, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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