Heroin

Afghanistan 16 — Afghan opium poppy field

Heroin (also known as diacetylmorphine and/or diamorphine) is a powerful semi-synthetic opioid that's further refined from morphine or codeine extracted from an opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Heroin is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine, which is metabolized in the body to morphine. The white crystalline form commonly thought of as "pure heroin" is usually the hydrochloride salt; diacetylmorphine hydrochloride (C21H23NO5.HCl).

Heroin was initially used medically, as a potent pain-killer. However, its addictive potential was eventually discovered and heroin was proscribed from medical use. Afterwards, it found new life as a recreational drug, and is classified an narcotic that's illegal in almost all of the countries in the world.

There are mainly two types of heroin; brown and white. Brown heroin is smoked or made into injectables by mixing it with citric acid or ascorbic acid, while white heroin is used intravenously. Heroin can be used by smoking, for example mixed with tobacco or on top of foil, as pills, snorting and injecting into a vein.

Heroin is featured in various James Bond stories, namely as a illegal narcotic distributed by the villainous forces. These include Bond novels - such as Devil May Care, Solo, Forever and a Day and the short-story Risico, as well as Bond films, including EON-produced Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only (film) and The Living Daylights (film), as well as the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again.

Additional details[]

Using opium as a recreational drug has de facto roots in lower Mesopotamian cultures since at least 3400 BC. In China, opium had been used for medical purposes since the 7th century century and would find use as a drug in the 17th century, when opium was mixed with tobacco. This smoking habit would become widespread in Southeast Asia.

In de jure terms, heroin was synthesized for the first time by the British chemist C. R. A. Wright in 1874. However, the strength of the substance was not fully understood at the time.

In 1897, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer noticed that diacetylmorphine was stronger than morphine. Bayer registered the substance under the brand name Heroin. The name probably comes from the German word heroisch, which referred to the "heroic" feeling that Bayer's testers felt they got from the substance.

From 1898 to 1910, heroin was marketed as a non-addictive substitute for morphine and as a (children's) cough medicine. Morphine was also commonly used as a cough medicine at the time.

The 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex stated that heroin's addictive potential is equal to that of morphine. In 1913, Bayer stopped producing heroin. In the United States, a law was enacted in 1924 that prohibited the manufacture and possession of heroin in the country. Legislation banning heroin was implemented in many European countries only after the Second World War.

The use of heroin as an recreational drug increased internationally in the 1940s and 1950s and again in the late 1960s.

Cultivation and distribution[]

In the past, most of the opium poppy fields were situated in the so-called "golden triangle" region of Thailand, Burma and Laos. Today, cultivation has moved to the so-called "Golden Crescent" region of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, many of the "Mujahideen" resistance leaders began increasing the opium production in order to fund their war against the Soviets -- despite being considered "haram" in Islamic religion. Between 1982 and 1983, the production of opium in the country doubled to 575 metric tons. By 2014, Afghanistan had become the largest opium poppy cultivation area in the world, producing 90% of the world's illegal opium.

In 2023, Burma overtook Afghanistan and became the world's largest producer of opium.

History[]

I want you to clean up this mess, 007

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Risico[]

TBA

Goldfinger (film)[]

The pre-titles sequence involves Bond destroying a heroin factory in Mexico, owned by the unseen Mr. Ramirez. After its destruction, Bond quips that Ramirez "won't be using heroin-flavored bananas to finance revolutions."

Live and Let Die (film)[]

Dr. Kananga operates massive poppy fields in San Monique, which is protected by the local voodoo cult. He uses his alter ego Mr. Big to distribute heroin in the United States.

For Your Eyes Only (film)[]

The villain Aris Kristatos is a heroin smuggler. Midway through the story, James Bond does find out that Kristatos is one, when he and Milos Columbo raid Kristatos' warehouse in Albania.

Never Say Never Again[]

"According to plans, an American Air Force officer has been introduced to a cruel mistress -- heroin."

― Ernst Stavro Blofeld^[src]

In order to gain access to the nuclear weapons to extort the world, SPECTRE has driven USAF officer Captain Jack Petachi to a heroin addiction. Fatima Blush supplies Petachi heroin, with the latter experiencing withdrawal symptoms before he is given some. This has made Petachi completely depend on SPECTRE and obedient towards them, until Fatima kills him for having outlived his usefulness.

The Living Daylights (film)[]

"(Bond tastes the substance on the knife he extracted from a Snow Leopard Brotherhood bag) Raw opium. Worth half a billion dollars on the streets of New York."

― James Bond to Kara Milovy^[src]

Koskov's and Whitaker's plan involve a triangle deal, where they exchange Afghan opium from the Mujahideen for Whitaker's weaponry. The opium in return will be sold in the United States with the profits used to fund the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Later in the film, James Bond infiltrates an exchange between the Soviets and the Mujahideen and uses a knife to puncture one of the sacks containing raw opium (i.e. from what heroin is refined from.)

Scorpius[]

TBA

Zero Minus Ten[]

TBA

Devil May Care[]

TBA

Solo[]

TBA

Forever and a Day[]

Villain Irwin Wolfe's plan is smuggle more than 5,000 pounds of heroin to the United States, using his cruise ship Mirabelle. He hopes to cause a drug pandemic, which Wolfe hopes will derail the US war effort in Korea to stop the war.

Trivia[]

Famous people who died as a result of heroin use include rock musicians Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious and Dee Dee Ramone.
The Unmade 15th Bond film was originally meant to take place in the Golden Triangle area, a major opium cultivation area. In the finished version - The Living Daylights - the action ends in Afghanistan, which is part of the other major opium cultivation zone, the Golden Crescent.