Foreign sources of opium are responsible for the entire supply of heroin consumed in the U.S. Efforts to reduce domestic heroin availability face significant problems. Unlike cocaine, which is concentrated in South America, opium production occurs in three source regions—Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America- creating a worldwide problem. While an undetermined amount of the opium is consumed in the producing regions, a significant amount of the drug is converted to heroin and sent to Europe and North America.
Historically, most of the world's illicit opium for heroin has been grown in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia. However, Latin America has emerged, in recent years, as the primary supplier of heroin to the United States. Colombian and Mexican heroin comprises 60 and 24 percent respectively of the heroin seized today in the United States. Low-level opium-poppy cultivation in Venezuela and even more limited growing in Peru currently produce only marginal amounts of heroin but could become the foundation for an expanding opium and heroin industry beyond Colombia. Opium-poppy cultivation in Venezuela is limited to the mountains opposite Colombia's growing area and appears to be a spillover from cultivation on the Colombian side of the border. Reports indicate that opium poppy cultivation in Peru over the last several years is nearly negligible.
With long-established trafficking and distribution networks and exclusive markets for black tar and brown powder heroin, Mexico's hold on the U.S. heroin market in the West seems secure. Mexico grows only about two percent of the world's illicit opium, but virtually the entire crop is converted into heroin for the U.S. market. Opium cultivation and production in Mexico have been relatively stable through most of the 1990s.
Source: ONDCP Fact Sheet: "Breaking Heroin Sources of Supply," March 2002
While the US does not receive large quantities of illegal drugs from Asia, historically Burma and Afghanistan have provided the raw materials for much of the world's heroin. In 2000, the US received only about 5% of its heroin from Afghanistan when it was the world's leading opium/heroin producer with 65,510 hectares of opium cultivation. In 2000, the Taliban, governing Afghanistan at the time, controlled over 96 percent of the area where opium poppy was cultivated. Afghanistan managed to reduce its production levels by 97% from 2000 to a record low of 1,685 hectares in 2001. The Taliban were able to achieve this significant reduction by imposing a ban on poppy cultivation the year prior in July 2000.
Despite the Afghanistan poppy ban, large seizures of opiates originating in Afghanistan continued to be made in Pakistan and other neighboring countries in 2001. This indicated that, despite the poppy ban, drug traffickers were able to draw on stockpiles of opium produced in Afghanistan over the last several years. It is uncertain what stockpiles remain or what cultivation to expect in 2002.
In 2001, Burma and Laos ranked as the world's leading opium producers, with 105,000 hectares of poppy in Burma and 22,000 hectares in Laos. With reports that farmers had started to replant opium in Afghanistan during the 2001 October-December planting season it is not known what effect this may have on the world's heroin production. The US remains concerned that Afghanistan could return to its position as the largest opium producer and considers the interim government an excellent opportunity to see that Afghanistan rid itself of being known as the world's largest supplier of heroin.
Source: ONDCP Fact Sheet: "Breaking Heroin Sources of Supply," March 2002