ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that introduction of cannabis to France followed the pattern of opium in China and was popular among avant-garde artists and writers in Paris who developed their own cannabis rituals and established hash-smoking cafes, such as Le Club des Hashischins. Reports were clearly documented the role of colonists, primarily Corsican gangsters who remained in Laos after French military withdrawal in 1954 and established small charter airlines, which collectively became known as Air Opium and operated from 1955 to 1965. The CIA agent Lucien Conein, himself of Corsican origin, was stationed in Saigon and involved in the 1963 coup that led to Ngo Dhin Diem's assassination. As part of his CIA intelligence work, Conein maintained ties with Corsican gangsters in Southeast Asia and Marseilles. France, like other European colonial powers, funded much of its empire expansion through the taxation of the cultivation and sale of opium-based drugs.
