H is for joy; Supply

The following program is produced as a public service feature by the radio division of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. With cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Illinois division of narcotic control. WE PRESENT. News. H is for joy. With. With. Will all. The laws of supply and demand our economic laws without a demand for a product there's no reason for it to exist. If for instance there was developed a technique for food preservation not using refrigeration then there would be no reason to continue manufacturing refrigerators would be no demand to create a supply. On the other hand the fact that a product or commodity does exist gives

reasonable support to the theory that someone somewhere desires that product. What we've just said should clearly indicate that the very existence of an illegal narcotic traffic shows a product is in demand and other programs have ages for joy we've talked about the product its effects on the human organism and the state federal and international laws that govern the flow of narcotics. Today we want to say something about supply. Let's start with the source. Studies clearly show that the major illicit sources of the world's narcotics supply today are communist China Burma Malaya India Japan Turkey Thailand Iran Syria Lebanon Italy and Mexico. Beginning in one thousand fifty one investigations conducted in Italy proved that Italian heroin has been smuggled into United States and elsewhere since 1948. Five licensed factories there diverted one ton of heroin into illicit channels for smuggling. The Italian

government recognizing this shocking situation as undertaken certain remedial measures in October 1951 the Italian commission of Public Health passed a decree indefinitely suspending further production of heroin. It is apparent that further production of heroin in Italy is unwarranted and unnecessary since possibly only 20 kilograms of heroin of the annual production of 200 kilograms were used or needed for Italian medicinal consumption 20 kilograms is about 44 pounds. This information comes from the book the trafficking narcotics by Harry and slinger. The United States Commissioner of narcotics. This translator also had this to say about supply. When we spoke to him on the phone right today about the traffic we are forced by the United States to serve our. Unless you're rich they

all believe that Turkey is processed in Syria and Lebanon goes Cubs. The United States by way of Italy France where it is also a process by way of Badri Ali in California there's a great deal of care when it comes to Mexico said Oh it is a great deal for bread because that is one of the one of the largest sources the less traffic that was hereon slinger United States Commissioner of narcotics. You'll be hearing more from Mr. Anslinger later in the series. What we would like to do in the remaining time of this program is trace the life history of oh let's say one pound of heroin from source to addict. Of course there are few addicts who could afford to buy a pound of pure heroin and there are fewer that could get it. But for the purposes of illustration we will assume this pound of powdered joy will eventually be placed into the hands in veins of an addict living in the United States.

We've got to begin somewhere say communist China. As we've said before heroin is a derivative of opium and opium is a sap like product of a certain poppy plant. The crude gum like balls of opium are shipped to manufacturing plants in China. They're a long and complicated chemical process begins in order to extract the heroin in pure form. Once it's extracted it's usually in a powdered form and is packaged for shipment to in this case Hong Kong a white powder can be hidden so easily that it might take days for highly trained specialists to thoroughly shirt's a ship and pronounce it clean. But the smuggling into Hong Kong seems to be a fairly easy task. The population is in such a constant state of flux that smuggling becomes relatively easy once smuggled into Hong Kong. Our pound of heroin might be picked up by a merchant marine sailor and stowed secretly away on a ship until he gets into port that is scheduled to receive the illicit drug.

One such port is Seattle Washington. Let's suppose this pound of heroin has safely been hidden in the ship's ventilating system in Hong Kong. It is written in secrecy across the seas and the ship is now resting at anchor off the shore of Seattle. The main problem now is to get to the shore safely. However this is not really much of a problem. What's one small package one pound of white powder compared to thousands of tons of goods that arrive daily from all manner of foreign ports. It can be compared to finding one grain of black sand in a bucket full of white sand. Our sailor carrier knows this but he takes extreme caution because he also knows that United States Customs agents are constantly on the alert for any illegal smuggling operations and therefore he may hide the h in many ways in order to get it to his contact man ashore. He might break up the pollen into several smaller packages and when these have been tightly sealed he might carefully insert them into small packages of foodstuffs such as powdered sugar.

These special boxes of sugar will then be marked with a prearranged code and once ashore they'll be picked up by another link in the smuggling chain. One smuggling operation was successful for a while when they wrapped the pure narcotics in watertight plastic bags weighted them with certain weights and threw them overboard in the ship's garbage at a prearranged location. The weights held the packages just below the water's surface and the sea gulls feeding on the garbage in the water mark the place where the pick up boat. So there are actually thousands of ways small quantities of narcotics can be smugglers joy United States Customs Bureau now has the job of confiscating materials smuggled into the United States. We've mentioned as an example Seattle Washington has a port of entry for the smuggling of our communist China manufactured heroin. But in actuality there are many other ports that serve as port of entry for illicit drugs such as narcotics. There's New York Montreal San Francisco and others along the U.S. and Mexican borders. So you see the

job of guarding all places of possible smuggling activity is one that stayed the imagination. But as long as we are imagining Let's get back to our pound of heroin. Now it's assured the contact has been made. The proper amount of money has safely passed hands. What's next. Usually the heroin is destined for some other city than the one into which it was smuggled. The root of this heroin we are following might read something like this from Seattle to Vancouver Vancouver across Canada to Windsor Windsor to Detroit and Detroit to Chicago and other Midwestern cities. Well the heroin might remain in its pure form and transit chances are that it has been cut several times before it reaches its final goal in this case let's say Chicago. Chicago heartland of the Midwest. A city teeming with some 3 million inhabitants. Six thousand of which are addicted to this white powder form of the poppy plant 6000 of which desire to shoot

into their veins a lukewarm liquid that within seconds will take them from the reality of the world that surrounds them and put them into an imaginary world of their own 6000 addicts who are willing to pay from $5 to 30 or even $100 a day in order to ensure their private escape from reality. The 60000 dope addicts in the United States pay an annual sum of over five hundred million dollars to the illicit narcotics trade or they are the best customers in the world. They don't complain about the price. They can't they don't complain about the poor quality of the drug as it sold to them. They can't. They're trapped between a craving for the illegal drug and the knowledge that at any time they may be arrested and imprisoned for illegal possession of the drug they're hooked in they know it. But what has happened to the one pound of pure heroin since it left Hong Kong. It's material value has increased from about twenty three dollars a pound to an estimated

$16000 a pound. Here we can safely say there's a ready market for this product and the demand far exceeds the supply. This is just a very brief summary of what may happen to one pound shipment of heroin. It began in communist China and reached the addict's veins in Chicago Illinois. But now Illinois has enacted legislation to curb the flow of illegal narcotics into it within its state's borders. If you'll remember we discussed this legislation in detail on the last program of eight years for joy. We also heard from news reports and the addict himself of the effectiveness of these laws both said they work. But in spite of this new legislation there are those still willing to take the risk and sell narcotics to the user. But the methods have changed in the last few years. What once was a relatively simple operation of buyer and seller has now become a highly complex and mechanical operation. The

pressure is on and it's being felt to give you some concept of the complicated buyer seller relationship that exists in Chicago today. Here's the story as told by an addict they get if someone from another neighborhood don't you just walk through you know come through the neighborhood it takes everybody way goes away. Got it goes bad. And all I want to do this way and part of $50 $100 you know a little click and I froze the SE US three would have clicked and we all you and we have 15 20 hours a day you know for stuff and we just pool of money and you know for certain Gaz it comes through twice or three times a day and take the orders and whom we were bound for and we could it

through and that would last us. Oh let me you know or until the last round and got it down we try to have a new way to get us know for you know to carry them to the next day and that would have been asked of all of the men. Yes they're still buying narcotics in Chicago and in New York Los Angeles Denver Detroit San Francisco and other cities throughout the United States. But the picture is not as pleasant as it was from the Addicks point of view. New legislation has made it more and more difficult for him to buy his fix. He's had to become more secretive. His supplier is constantly in fear of being caught. Money changes hands but drugs are more often hidden in a prearranged location. The daily tension of continued addiction has increased. In other words the supply is slowly being choked as enforcement

becomes more accurate. Supply breathes harder in some areas it's gasping for breath. The death rattle in its throat is unmistakable the demand is still there but it too is dying. And in the future when supplies a thing of the past. Fewer and fewer persons will ever have the chance to say even for a moment that age is for joy. The script was written by Edwin and her production Bill Oberg. This is Ted Seeley

speaking. The preceding tape recorded program was made available to this station by the National Association of educational broadcasters. This is the Radio Network.