It's 1973 in the hinterlands of Southeast Asia's golden triangle.

Losing Han, the so-called godfather of heroin, is marshalling a convoy of mules through Burma's Shan state from his home in the mountainous kingdom of

Kolkang towards the Thai border.

Their cargo is five tons of morphing, the dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of

opium puppies and which after some chemical wizardry will become heroin that is

in the wake of America's failing war in Vietnam

fueling a global addiction epidemic the likes of which the world has never seen.

Five tons of morphine low claims is enough to keep feeding the highs of every dope themed in America for six months.

It's a huge amount.

Which makes sense, given that Low, once the deputy of feared Opium Queen Olive Yang, is thought to command half of all the heroin traffic on earth.

Only Lowe has ear marked this particular five tons for a wildly ambitious deal,

one he hopes will in decades-long chaos and bloodshed between Burma's communists and

Democrats, rebel armies and Maoists, each one shifting allegiances more often than

baseball players and keeping their country locked in a vicious cycle of poverty and

warfare.

Lo himself has done so recently, turning away from the Burmese state and is paranoid socialist leader

they win.

In Rangoon, the Burmese capital, Lowe is public enemy number one.

According to Lowe, his greatest opportunity

isn't in Rangoon at all, but in Washington, D.C.

It's two years, of course,

since President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs

...