Drugs are a hell of a drug.
The Communists were still, however, a force to be reckoned with, controlling 20,000 or so well-armed troops and a territory the size of Wales or Massachusetts along the Burma—China border. Harsh taxes on local villagers were imposed to make up for the lost support from Beijing. When
some commanders turned to the lucrative drug trade, the party leadership threatened “stern measures.” These commanders mutinied, overthrowing the party leadership.
The mutineers (key figures in the dramas to come) stormed the party
headquarters, taking control of the armory, burning Communist literature, and smashing portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Mao Zedong. The Marxist intellectuals who had headed the party, mainly men in their seventies, fled to China. The 20,000 members of the rank and file split up. The Communist insurgency was no more, but in its place were four formidable replacement armies, all uncertain of what to do next.
—The Hidden History of Burma.
Drugs are a hell of a drug.