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WI the USSR had grown opium as a cash crop?

Hendryk

Taken back control yet?
Published by SLP
Location
France
This is in the context of WIAF but it may just as well apply to OTL as well.

Opium was grown in the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union in OTL, mostly the Kirghiz SSR. But so far as I've been able to ascertain, it was only intended for medicinal use. However, throughout the first two Five-Year Plans, the Soviet government was desperately short on hard currency to pay technological imports with, and relied on a number of expedients such as selling off artworks (and of course starving the peasants in order to export their crops). Domestically, as much as 20% of the government budget came from sales of vodka.

So what if the USSR had tried growing opium as a cash crop in the 1930s? After all, the British had done so back in the 19th century, and the French had set up a state monopoly on opium sale in Indochina, to say nothing of the Japanese's own shenanigans. The most profitable market would obviously be China, which would have required setting up smuggling rings in Xinjiang, certainly not impossible considering the length of the Sino-Soviet border and its remoteness from the centers of power. Local authorities could have been bribed if necessary.
 
I can certainly see the Soviets trying something- Potentially starting off as trying to export for medicinal use (i.e. 'Soviet Opium is best quality, all hospitals in world should use it'), and when that's not getting the returns overlooking more recreational use as long as the money comes in.

One unintended side effect is likely to be widespread use of opiates in Soviet Union- the internal passport system here would probably help curb things, but I can well foresee an epidemic of drug use issues.
 
One unintended side effect is likely to be widespread use of opiates in Soviet Union- the internal passport system here would probably help curb things, but I can well foresee an epidemic of drug use issues.
I'm not sure, is there inevitably opium consumption in opium-producing countries? In the case of the USSR, if the command economy could successfully confiscate grain from starving farmers, I don't expect it to have too much trouble keeping opium crops out of reach of potential domestic consumers, at least for the duration of the Stalinian period. Afterwards one might indeed see Russians turn to opiates alongside vodka.

But I'm mostly interested in the international effects of the USSR selling opium on the black market.
 
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