Getting high in Laos' opium-riddled mountains
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Getting high in Laos' opium-riddled mountains
Hmong tribesman Vo Pali taking a puff of opium at his village in Houaphan province, northern Laos. Wedged between five countries, reclusive Laos has for decades played a starring role in the (AFP/Adrian Jones)
Aidan Jones
September 9, 2018
"I smoke three times a day," the 60-year-old ethnic Hmong villager says in a barely audible rasp of his 30-year habit.
"The Hmong have grown and smoked opium as a medicine -- and as recreation -- for generations.But no full drug addiction survey has ever been taken in Laos and there is virtually no rehab provision."
"Several major seizures of raw opium and heroin this year in Vietnam couriered by Hmong villagers has renewed scrutiny on the relationship between opium and Laos' most marginalised people."
"With ungovernable land borders to Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia, Laos is effectively a free run for the meth barons of Myanmar who are sending record amounts of "yaba" and "ice" through its unguarded frontiers. "
"Curled up -- almost childlike -- in his shack as the waves of opium strike him, Vo Pali makes an unlikely link in a global criminal chain.But the cycle of addiction keeps opium farmers in business."
Full https://www.thejakartapost.com/seasia/2 ... tains.html
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