Persian Base

[PliersOfSociety]

In his book, "Living With The Dead," former Jerry Garcia manager Rock Scully describes Garcia as not liking powder heroin (due to the Nod, which is funny, as he was called Chief Smoking Moccasins due to his propensity for setting off fire sprinklers on entire hotel floors while dragon-chasing and falling asleep with a lit cigarette which would land on his moccasins which would then start smoking.

I understand Jerry had stress when about to do a tour of the East Coast of the USA as he was less able to find it than on the West Coast, and wanted to blow off a tour of Europe for the same reason until he called Peter Townshend who didn't know where to find it but called I believe Keith Richards who apparently met Jerry at the airport with an ample supply.

I also recall before a Jerry Garcia Band concert at Glassboro State College in New Jersey, Garcia was a guest on the college radio station and kept saying stuff like "Does anyone want to get DOWN with me? Come on DOWN and help Jerry get DOWN" and stuff like that with the emphasis on the word down. This was maybe in 1981 or so before his then 4-year long heroin addiction became well-known. It flipped me out at the time.

Anyway, does anyone know anything about this Persian base? I found this site http://www.harmreduction.org/pubs/PUBSpdfs/heroin.pdf but it's taking ridiculously long to load on my dial-up. This site refers to "Iranian Base heroin" which, as "Persian" is merely the old term for "Iranian" is likely the same thing. Plus, the paragraph says it appeared on the British circuit in 1978-79 which sounds right, as Garcia said he was turned on by a guru in 1977 or 78 and knew right awat that he ould continue to do it.

Again, does anyone have any knowledge/experience with it. I figure Swiy could probably provide some information. Thanks!

[PliersOfSociety]

Oh yeah; the second link I found was http://www.drugtext.org/library/book...d/chasdra5.htm and the content follows:

While in the Netherlands heroin smoking emerged in the early 1970s, at the start of the following decade the first signs of a similar development in Britain started to arouse public attention. In 1978/79 Iranian base heroin began flooding the British market. 20 This brown heroin was particularly suitable for smoking and, compared to the still available South East Asian white heroin, which previously dominated the (much smaller) market, cheap. In some areas heroin smoking spread very rapidly. By 1985, in the Wirral (Northern England) around 95% of the plus/minus 5000 new heroin users were taking the drug by inhalation." Another study in Northern England found, however, major differences in the drug taking patterns from one town to another, presumably related to whether the pre-existing local drug subcultures favored injecting or snorting amphetamine."

[cz-one]

In the 70's european heroin was produced all around the middle east-lebanon,turkey,pakistan and iran-the so-called'golden crescent',and the persian stuff was generally regarded as the best quality,as huge loads of it were brought over by exiles directly from Iran,which meant it wasnt cut down during the long journey from the middle-east,over mainland europe and onto the uk,as the other stuff was,and so even when cut,still generally had a higher rate of purity.

[cz-one]

It was from very light brown to very dark coffee coloured,basically,the same stuff we get from afghanistan in the uk today only usually stronger than the 45-55% purity the uk averages now,and went for something close to £100/gram which in the 70's i believe was a substantial amount(this isnt from my experiences,i asked someone who's been doing H.since the early 70's).

[brown_chunx]

I've heard that afghanistan is the biggest supplier of white dope. Considering most white dope is reffered to as China White, it seems like Asia would be the biggest supplier.

[cz-one]

Afghanistan is the biggest producer of opium but they only produce the brown base stuff from the labs there and in pakistan,the white stuff is from burma/laos and colombia.Afghanistans main customers are europe and the middle east,while the golden triangle supplies australasia,far east and the us.

[PliersOfSociety]

I wonder why the brown base stuff was so loved by Mr. Garcia - perhaps it smokes better, or at least did for him. According to bios and whatnot, he was pretty adamant about it. Sounds from this thread more like the white tends to be stronger. Maybe something in the absorption and stages of its effects made it more appealing to Jerry.