I am pretty sure that opium is a possible substance used but that is for the most part a rumor. Real thai stick that i was getting was just a premium seedles brown high potency bud possibly dipped but i was told most real stick that was in the 70's was dipped in hash oil but i could not taste any thing on the weed. I could be wrong but the stuff i was getting in the late 70's was just well grown premium seedless brown bud. IMO i think modern growers have mastered the methods of obtaining high potency so this has drivin the thai stick out of business. I also think that now that the vietnam war is over that kind of hurt the method of transportation which in turn now you rarely hear of thai stick being sold. In 1988 I was lucky enough to visit korat Air Base in Thailand during a training exersise and i can assure you that outside grown seedles brown dry good tasteing bud is still very much available in thailand and they take pride in it being potent. Opium is everywhere in thailand as well so i imagine some of it might have made its way on those tiny sticks but i wouldn't buy it if i detected it on my bud. If you ever watch locked up abroad you will understand the reasons not to try to traffic bud from any overseas country period. They would lock up americans and throw the key away if caught any place surrounding thailand with bud. I been to many far east countries and we americans are not very well liked from what i have experianced. They only like our cash $$..Thats cool to me because the only thing i liked there was the woman and the partying. So if you ever hear an old timer say he had some killer brown bud back in the day you can almost bet its true. Another rumor about thai stick is it comes only from thailand. Bud was tied to sticks in vietnam,Laos,cambodia and all the surrounding countries in the 70's. I am sure you might find some thai stick from time to time being sold but it is not as abundant as during the vietnam war. The Far East is full of bud and they know us americans love our bud. Many times i have witnessed small children selling weed at traffic lights to americans. OK, I admit i have bought it, lol. About 2 bux used to buy around an 1/8 of decent bud and i would roll a few jays and throw the rest away because to enter the base at night you had to pass K-9 100% of the time. Now thats wasteing bud! :rasta: