Opium

I arrived in the city of Pai, where the hippie crowd is well and alive (everybody is "happy"). The city is probably similar to Kathmandu in the 1970s, this being the main leftover of the former opium fields that surrounded the area fifteen years ago. For anybody who is interested in opium traffic and opium history, there are splendid and instructive trekking opportunities around. For those who were at the IEP for my last year, this post will maybe remind them of an an expose I did back then. But this time, I have some pictures (not of opium poppies, sorry...), and my Shan guide was really good.

Background

Take the most powerful active ingredient of opium and you obtain morphine; refine it and you obtain pure heroin. The region surrounding Burma, Laos and Thailand (often referred to as the Golden Triangle) is the main opium producing land in the world, together with Afganisthan. There are many reasons behind this: these three countries are separated by mountains which makes it perfect for opium growing (between 1200-1500 meters); it is much easier to do illegal activities at the borders of several countries, especially if these countries do not cooperate to fight drug traffic; last but not least, the region is populates by hilltribes, i.e. tribes which are effectively non-thai, non-burmese, non-lao. And they cultivate opium for centuries for their own consumption.

Mountains surrounding Pai: the proximity to Burma makes it a good place for opim traffic

Opium traffic reached its peak in the 1990s, when a leader named Khun Sa was reigning in the region. At the peak of its power, Khun Sa had a "private" army of 200,000 men, who were fighting for the creation of a Shan state (on paper) but were in fact used to smuggle opium and fight against Burmese and Thai military forces. Khun Sa was the equivalent of Don Corleone: he would buy opium from all the hilltribes in the region, and set up his own heroin factories in the mountains. To gain in popularity amongst the 20+ hilltribe ethnic groups, he would also buy regular goods (for instance chicken) at prices five times higher than on markets. Some time ago he surrendered to Burma against a complete amnesty and died about a month ago in his villa in Rangoon.

Substitution cultures

The two villages I visited today were Lahu and Lisu, two relatively similar tribes (animists and sino-tibetan) who both used to sell opium to Khun Sa. About 95% of their opium production was sold, whilst 5% of it was kept for self-consumption. It was used in particular to solve diseases: a young boy with a fever would smoke some opium, and subsequently have a good sleep (!) and be fit again the next days. Some people however turned to become strongly addicted to opium.

These two villages have witnessed considerable change in less than 20 years. In a move to fight opium traffic, Thailand started a "substitution" program in the 1990s. The idea was to bring modern agriculture to the hilltribes, enabling them to effectively double and sell production of other goods such as garlic, in exchange for stopping opim production. For this reason, the farming fields around Pai are very strange - hilltribe people are using state-of-the art irrigation methods (water is brought directly to the fields, etc.) that you cannot see anywhere in Laos. And hunters are using rifles!!

Lahu women working on a garlic field

The opium addicts had to undergo a mandatory desintoxication course in Thai hospitals, whilst at the same time schools were constructed. Both tribes, who used to be semi-nomads, are now forced to stay in the region by the Thai government as a part of their program. They seem to make good money (some of them have motorbikes) out of garlic and tea, even though trade liberalisation with other Asian countries raised significant problems in the past years (garlic is cheaper in Burma and Laos). All in all their proximity to Pai and modern agriculture methods grants them a decent revenue.

It is difficult to assess the effects of the program set up in place by Thailand, but several things are for sure: opium production has been eradicated from the Pai region and has moved to the Burma side, whist the centuries-old lifestyle of the hilltribe people has considerably changed. For this reason I am moving (actually rafting for two days) to the Mae Hong Son region tomorrow where I will then do a long trek (4-5 days) in remote villages, where authenticity has supposedly been preserved. Lucky some, I know :-)