While not so many people have heard of The Golden Crescent - an area of opium and heroin production that stretches between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran - its successful cousin The Golden Triangle is fairly common geographical knowledge, especially for anyone who has an interest in the drug trade. So why the comparative obscurity?

During the 1980s popular media made The Golden Triangle a well known geographic reference. It was almost household knowledge that this area in southeast Asia went hand in hand with opium and heroin production. Fortunes were made and lost, politicians killed and governments bought. The area was the single greatest supplier of the world heroin market by 1990. The media was in overdrive and the average Joe could usually get a hit of The Golden Triangle just by watching 60 Minutes or any number of B-grade movies or television serials.

What is interesting about the comparative obscurity of The Golden Crescent in popular culture is its superior strategic merit as a base for the world’s heroin supply. It has easy access to distribution points in Europe and the Middle East via comparatively porous borders. Yet for one reason or another, the region has not stolen the imagination of the popular press in the way its southeast Asian counterpart did in the 80s. Sure, there are many references to Afghanistan or Pakistan as individual drug producers, but few to the actual “Golden Crescent.” One of the reasons may be due to the fact that the Golden Crescent emerged as a major modern supplier of heroin a decade or two after the emergence of the Golden Triangle.

This may change.

The instability of Afghanistan, Pakistan lends itself to the expansion of illegal activities such as smuggling. The future of Iran is also looking shaky too. With the continuing instability of the region, the factors necessary to encourage the expansion of the drug trade have already emerged. Heroin supply is once again expanding.

With the recent growing interest in this region of the world with the War on Terror, the press will continue to descend. The phenomenon on interest in the area has only just begun and is really less than 5 years old. And as the press continues to descend, they are going to need a catchy phrase for their drug fluff stories. The Golden Crescent’s time will come to shine. It may be sooner and it may be later, but the Golden Crescent will become as well known as its waning cousin in southest Asia.