"As China grows, so does its appetite for jade. But the gemstone?s journey from Myanmar?s mines to China?s consumers follows a trail of addiction, infection and exploitation"....."MYITKYINA, Myanmar — At 16, the gem trader?s son set out for the jade mines to seek his fortune in the precious stone that China craves. But a month in, the teenager, Sang Aung Bau Hkum, was feeding his own addiction: heroin, the drug of choice among the men who work the bleak terrain of gouged earthen pits, shared needles and dwindling hope here in the jungles of northern Myanmar. Three years later he finally found what he had come for — a jade rock ?as green as a summer leaf.” He spent some of the $6,000 that a Chinese trader paid him on a motorcycle, a cellphone and gambling. ?The rest disappeared into my veins,” he said, tapping the crook in his left arm as dozens of other gaunt miners in varying states of withdrawal passed the time at a rudimentary rehabilitation clinic here. ?The Chinese bosses know we?re addicted to heroin, but they don?t care. Their minds are filled with jade.”..."