Some consider the Australian heroin “drought” an example of successful interdiction with Australian law enforcement activities constraining the Golden Triangle/Australian wholesale/retail connection ( Degenhardt et al., 2005).
Much has been written about heroin shortages in Australia and Canada circa 2001 ( Degenhardt, Reuter, Collins, & Hall, 2005 Weatherburn, Freeman, & Makkai, 2003 Wood, Stoltz, Li, Montaner, & Kerr, 2006). Since the ousting of the Taliban regime, record heroin crops have been reported (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2007a) and heroin prices in Europe have dropped substantially ( Gibson et al., 2005 United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, 1999 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003). There is no evidence of an alternative supply coming from any other opium or heroin producing region. The Afghanistan Taliban induced opium shortage circa 2000 did not produce a price shift in its primary retail markets in Europe ( Gibson et al., 2005) supporting the notion of a surplus in the supply chain. The establishment of regional exclusive markets and supply surpluses is consistent with boom and bust events recently noted. From the vantage of economic theory, this helps develop the case that heroin supply exceeds demand in most developed consuming regions ( Ciccarone, 2005). Retail prices in these restricted markets are low by historical standards, despite the reduced competition from fewer sources ( Gibson, Degenhardt, Day, & McKetin, 2005). This paper will highlight changes in the US heroin market, including source trends, the political economy of the now dominant source and the resultant effects on the heroin risk environment by US region.Įxclusive regional heroin markets have developed worldwide: poppies grown in Afghanistan predominately end up as heroin in Europe Southeast Asian heroin almost exclusively goes to Australia and Western Canada and Colombian and Mexican heroin retails in the US. Using a structural and historical framework we examined two decades of secondary data sources, including United States government and international drug control agency documents, on heroin supply together with published work on the political dynamics in Latin America, to explore paradoxical effects of interdiction coupled with neoliberal economic reform on the US heroin market.
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What is less well established is how the contemporary competing dynamics of interdiction, or restriction of heroin flow across international boundaries, and neoliberal, e.g., global expansion of free trade, policies are affecting heroin markets. It is well recognized that geopolitical instability fosters the international heroin trade ( United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2000 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Country Office for Afghanistan, 2008).
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