Involvement in Exposing CIA's Drug Trafficking
Through his own drug use, and the drug use of his friends and associates, Ginsberg became more and more preoccupied with the American government's relationship to drug use within and outside the nation (see Demystification of drugs) He worked closely with Alfred W. McCoy who was writing The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia which tracked the history of the American government's involvement in illegal opium dealing around the world. This would affirm Allen's suspicions that the government and the CIA were involved in drug trafficking. In addition to working with McCoy, Allen personally confronted Richard Helms, the director of the CIA in 1970s, but he was simply brushed off as being "full of beans". Allen worked relentlessly writing essays and articles, researching and compiling evidence of CIA's involvement, but it would take ten years, and the publication of McCoy's book in 1972, before anyone took him seriously. In 1978 Allen received a note from the chief editor of the New York Times, apologizing for not taking his allegations seriously so many years previous.
The subject is dealt with in the song/poem CIA Dope calypso.
Read more about this topic: Allen Ginsberg
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