THE PATH - FROM POPPY TO PERIL

Not a pinch of heroin is produced in the United States, yet thousands
of pounds of the drug infiltrate our communities every year.

The story of how heroin gets here has all the hallmarks of a
best-selling novel. It involves big money, murder, high-tech
espionage, international politics, puppies, and people from across
the economic and social spectrum.

The plot begins in a fertile Latin American field, where a peasant
farmer illegally plants exotic, eye-catching opium poppy flowers to
make money to feed his family. Months into the growing process, the
flower pods are scored five times with a knife. Within days, black
opium gum oozes from the flower's wounds.

The gum is harvested, sold to a criminal organization, transported to
a refinery, and converted by a series of chemical processes into
morphine. That drug is then pressed into bricks and blended with more
chemicals. The end product is pure heroin.

Facts Nicknames Brown sugar, China white, Dope, Dr. Feelgood, H,
Horse, Junk, Lady, Scag, Smack Cultural odes Books (with authors)
"The Basketball Diaries" Jim Carroll "Naked Lunch" William S.
Burroughs "Requiem for a Dream" Hubert Selby Jr. Films (with
directors) "Drugstore Cowboy" Gus Van Sant "Maria Full of Grace"
Joshua Marston "Pulp Fiction" Quentin Tarantino "Trainspotting" Danny
Boyle Songs (with artists) "Junkhead" Alice in Chains "Habit" Pearl
Jam "Mr. Brownstone" Guns N' Roses "The Needle and the Damage Done"
Neil Young "Under the Bridge" Red Hot Chili Peppers Famous users John
Belushi, Ray Charles, Kurt Cobain, Miles Davis, Jerry Garcia, Howard
Hughes, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, River Phoenix, Sid Vicious

The late 1980s saw enterprising Latin American drug lords supplement
their burgeoning cocaine trade by enticing curious Americans with a
form of heroin cheaper and purer than had been seen before. Abiding
by a term familiar to economic majors -- vertical integration -- the
crime organizations devoted fields to growing the opium poppy flower,
knowing they could get their product to the United States quicker and
easier than their competitors in Asia and the Middle East.

In the two decades since Latin America increased heroin production,
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says the
number of addicts in the United States has doubled.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Afghanistan
produced 92 percent of the world's heroin in 2004, while Latin
America accounted for just 2 percent. Yet 84 percent of the heroin
that reached the United States that year came from either Colombia or
Mexico (60 and 24 percent, respectively).

Most of Mexico's heroin -- a lower-potency, sticky form called "black
tar" -- heads to the West Coast, while Eastern states receive
Colombian high-grade: a light brown, powdery substance.

"The majority of our heroin here in the Northeast is Colombian," DEA
spokesman Anthony Pettigrew said. "Our goal at the DEA is to work
with local police on cases and track the heroin as far back as
possible, all the way to Colombia. We're always trying to work it
back to the original source, to nab everyone involved in the chain."

After production, heroin reaches U.S. soil by couriers, whose
techniques are limited only by their imagination. It's sewn into
luggage, hidden in porcelain dolls, or stashed in the soles of shoes.
Teenage girls swallow bags of it, board planes and land in U.S.
airports, where they later excrete it and exchange it for cash; that
is, if the bag doesn't burst in their stomachs and kill them.

DEA agents regularly find heroin hidden inside cars crossing the
border and in cargo hulls on ships. A recent border patrol in Texas
uncovered $5 million worth of the drug stuffed in a human corpse that
had been stolen from a hospital. In one instance, six puppies were
found with a total of three kilograms of liquid heroin baggies
implanted beneath their skin.

Once the journey to the United States is complete, the drug is cut.
Some dealers add minimal cutting agents, leaving the purity levels
high to attract customers. On the tame side, the dilutants can be
powdered milk, baking soda or caffeine. On the dark side, heroin can
be bulked up with strychnine, crushed prescription pills or rat
poison. As many times as it passes hands, it could be cut with a
different substance, yielding a mishmash of mystery chemicals.

The DEA said a kilogram -- 2.2 pounds -- of pure heroin costs
Colombian cartels $8,000 to produce. By the time it ends up in a
heroin corridor such as Holyoke, it's sold for $55,000. And by the
time it's cut, packaged in small, glassine baggies and sold for $5 --
in 0.025 gram bags (a pinch of salt) -- it can fetch $250,000.

Dealers, using the marketing skills of "dopenomics," stamp flashy
labels on the bags -- names like Mo Money, Bad Habit or Sniper --
along with logos of dollar bills, handguns or naked women. If users
try a bag of Mo Money heroin and like it, they know exactly what to
ask for when they come back for more.

Average drug traffickers can lose 90 percent of their product to
police or thieves and still remain profitable.

U.S. Army personnel and the DEA work with South American governments
to eradicate the poppy crops, spraying chemicals and busting the drug
organizations, but the drug still seeps into our communities.

"We're doing all we can do to fight the drugs," said Pittsfield
Police Detective Glenn F. Decker. "In the end, we lose the war on
drugs because we can't protect our borders."