LUANG PRABANG, Lao PDR - Douy, a 40-year-old Lao Therng woman, first began using opium more than 15 years ago to ease severe pains in her womb. There were no other medicines available to her at that time, she says.
“I started to use opium when I was 25 years old. I remember it could really lessen the pain; I used it almost everyday and then suddenly. I was addicted,” said Douy, who is from the village of Huay Na in Muang Ngoy district of Luang Prabang province.
But she added that since participating in an opium detoxification programme initiated by the Lao and U.S. governments, she has now stopped using the drug. The programme is in conjunction with the Lao government’s policy to eradicate opium poppy cultivation, which was supposed to have been accomplished by the end of 2005, in time for the government to declare the landlocked country “opium-free” on Feb. 14, 2006. The Lao government is currently carrying out nationwide surveys to determine whether there are opium plantations left to be cut down and burned.
Most opium plantations in Laos have traditionally been located in 11 northern provinces of the country – Houaphanh, Sam Neua, Phongsaly, Oudomxai, Xieng Khouang, Luang Prabang, Bo Kaeo, Luang Namtha, Xaisomboun, Saignabouli and Vientiane.
Douy, whose husband’s death a decade ago was drug-related, is one of seven women and dozens of men from Ban Huay Na who have attended the 17-day opium detoxification programme in the past few months.
While they are on the programme, all drug users take medication everyday until they no longer have the desire to use opium. Furthermore, they are taught about the dangers of drugs from both the health and social aspects. Douy says that she has worked hard all her life, but had nothing to show for it. She adds that she was never able to save any money, and knows many people in her village who have the same story. Others were unable even to work and had become heavy burdens on their families.
Ban Huay Na, a mountainous village with 64 families, is one of the poorest in Laos. In the old days, almost all families in the area grew opium poppy and sold raw opium to outside markets. But since the Lao government first initiated its plan to eradicate opium cultivation in 2000, most families have been encouraged to grow cash crops and raise stock animals under alternative development projects.
Bounmuang Phanthavong, chief of the drugs suppression unit of the Lao National Commission for Drugs Control and Supervision (LCDC) in Luang Prabang, describes the government’s plan to eradicate opium cultivation. He says that at the end of 2004, the six districts of Muang Luang Prabang, Nan, Pak-ou, Pakxaeng, Ponxai and Xiangern were declared “opium-free” zones, and four more districts – Muang Pakhun, Vieng Kham, Muang Hgoy and Nam Bak – received the designation at the end of 2005.
Bounmuang says that since 2000, his unit had adopted successful measures designed by the government to deal with the drug problem. These include supplying information and training to people about the danger of drugs, imposing criminal penalties for those still involved in opium cultivation and use, setting up a special task force to monitor if opium was still under cultivation in each targeted area, and organisation of a village panel comprised of local anti-drugs officials, residents and village chiefs, to help destroy opium plantations.
He admits that during the first two years of the campaign, he and his officials faced a lot of difficulties convincing Lao hilltribe people to stop growing opium, as they did not understand why something they had been cultivating for a long time should now be illegal. “These were mostly hilltribe people who had never gone to school. They have never been taught about the scourge of drugs or the principles of law. They had earned a living growing opium for generations,” Bounmuang explained.
Officials say they patiently explained the situation to the hilltribes, until they had more understanding of the negative impact of opium cultivation and addiction. After the villagers agreed to comply with the authorities’ instructions, Bounmuang adds, they themselves turned over a lot of raw opium kept for trade -- and many had the authorities come and destroy their own opium plantations.
Bounmuang says that because of the massive operations to eradicate opium in Luang Prabang province since 2000, the area planted to opium poppy has been reduced from 3,038 hectares during that year to 318 hectares in 2005. The number of villages growing opium has dropped from 219 in 2000 to 99 in 2005, he adds.
He says his office also brought around 2,000 opium addicts living in various districts of Luang Prabang province to undergo medical treatment and rehabilitation. Hilltribe communities that had stopped growing opium were introduced to alternative livelihood projects.
Furthermore, the Lao government, in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, set up the Programme Facilitation Unit to help provide former opium growers with low-interest loans so that they would have the money to make new investment in alternative livelihoods.
Ban Phone Xai is another small village inhabited by ethnic minority Lao Therng in Muang Ngoy district, Luang Prabang province. The village is located on a mountain slope overlooking a valley about five kilometres north of Ban Huay Na village.
Lao drugs authorities proclaimed victory over opium cultivation in this village in 2002, after the government sent representatives to hold talks with its villagers.
Immediately afterward, they brought alternative development projects to the area. Now most of the people who used to be involved in growing opium earn a living by exporting wood for paper production to China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Village chief Thongduaen Somcharoen, 53, says that in the past, about 60 of the 119 families in his village had at least two to three plots planted to opium. As far as he can remember, he says opium cultivation has been there since about 1967.
Thongduaen recalls that at first, most villagers did not clearly understand the government’s actions or motives, and did not pay much attention to the opium eradication programme. But after a year, he says, they saw that the government was very serious about addressing this, and wanted to help villagers get out of poverty.
“After we joined the government’s campaign, our living status improved. The income in each household has increased from two to three million kip (200 to 300 U.S. dollars) to seven to eight million kip a year (700 to 800 dollars),” he says, adding that the government’s alternative development and crop substitution projects deserved the credit for this change.
Linthong Phetsavan, head of the permanent secretariat of the LCDC, oversees the opium eradication policy nationwide. He says its success is a clear demonstration of the political will and commitment of his government in meeting the goals set by the United Nations.
Linthong says that over the years, the area under poppy cultivation in Laos has been reduced from 26,837 hectares in 1998 to 1,800 hectares in 2005. “This steady decline in terms of area under opium poppy cultivation has given my country positive impetus in attaining its goals,” he said. Likewise, he says, the number of opium addicts has dropped from 63,000 in 1998 to about 20,000 at the end of 2005.
Linthong acknowledges that his country has been known around the world for producing opium as part of the Golden Triangle. It is said that in some years, about 90 percent of the opium in the region was produced in northern Laos.
“So we consider that the declaration of Laos as an opium-free country will be an event of historical importance for the Lao government and people,” Linthong stressed, proudly.
These articles were also published in 'The Bangkok Post', Thailand.
