`  :::Late sixties reference: June 1968 Ramparts has an article titled ``The CIA's flourishing opium trade.``  This is a very complete account of the CIA-drug claim, complete with ``an island on the Mekong`` that boasts ``a factory run by an Austrian where the opium is refined to the powdery morphine base which takes up only a tenth of the space. Air America flies it to the giant United States base at Udon Thani or the smaller base at Nakhon Phanom in Thailand, to Chieng Mai, Bangkok, Danang, Saigon.`` There is no by-line for the story.  Let's call up Warren Hinckle and ask! Given such a circumstantial account, I wonder why did this whole thing not take off until four years later. I'm going to have to think about that one.   `