Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...

100Chairman Pepper. Mr, Waldie, do you have a question?Mr. Waldie. Well, Mr. Chairman, I am intruding in a conversationthat has already occurred, but it seems to me that to invest any greatsums of money in surveying that area of the globe where opiimi isbeing grown is moving to the problem in the wrong way. We knowwhere opium is being grown. It is being grown in Laos. It is beinggrown in Burma. It is being grown in Turkey.It has not been a problem of identifying where the fields are. It isgetting those who grow the opium to curtail production of it. Theirfailure to curtail production has not been a failure on their part toidentify where it is being grown.It would seem to me that money ought to be spent, first, to getwillingness on the part of the governments that own the land onwhich the opium is being grown to embark upon a program of eradicationand then, perhaps, to a system in identifying the areas in whicheradication is necessary.I don't think there is any problem of identifying Laotian opium.It is participated in by the Laotian Government. They are profitingfrom it. Burma opium crops are not any secret ; neither are the Turkeyopium crops. I just am not quite certain why we would invest anymoney in aerial surveillance to determine where the fields are that aregrowing opium at this point.Chairman Pepper. I think, perhaps, you didn't get the assumption.Mr. Jaffe would you state what the assumption was upon which yourecommend the use of these detection devices for growing poppyfields ?Mr. Jaffe. First of all, the idea that there is no one route, there isnot lust one thing that needs to be done and that the aerial surveillanceof the opium fits into a total scheme of things which would includesuch things as international agreements, which would then have to beenforced, and violations of that treaty would have to be detected.From there we get to the aerial surveillance. That is one route, to getto the aerial surveillance.But it is within the total scheme of things, we think, that aerial surveillanceplays a part. I would agree that in the case of Laos there maybe no, or very little reason to want to know where each field isprecisely.But I think the reasons in Turkey and other countries that arecloser and friendly, the reasons become somewhat more compelling.It is one thing to have an agreement from them to limit the growth ofopium. It is another thing to be sure that it is actually happening andto know where it is and isn't happening.It is in that context that we propose to use it.Chairman Pepper. Gentlemen, if I understand it, you surmise, as didAssistant Secretary of the Treasury Rossides. that the bringing in ofheroin to this country is effectuated largely by an international conspiracyof people who are perpetrating that crime in order to makehundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, a year. They are ruthless,they are well organized, they are ably directed.In other words, it is a criminal conspiracy of great magnitude.You are suggesting that if we are to be effective against that kindof an international conspiracy to bring opium into this country anddistribute it we must employ or we should, to be most effective, employthe most modwn techniques and the most comprehensive program fordealing with it ; is that the theme of your statement ?