This Laotian Drug Pills Only Sold for IDR 8,000
- Al Jazeera
Vientiane – Drug trafficking in Vientiane, the capital of Laos is at an all-time high. Part of the problem is neighbouring Myanmar, where the 2021 coup has created a violent conflict and a vacuum in law and order that has allowed drug syndicates to thrive.
In Laos, the poorly-resourced police are facing a deluge of narcotics as the country has become a vital trafficking corridor in Asia’s drug trade.
The surge has pushed prices down to record lows, with front-line workers saying pills are now being sold for as little as $0.24 cents each (IDR 8 thousand) – cheaper than most basic necessities like food and water and making the drug affordable to all in one of Asia’s poorest countries.
Ilustrasi narkoba.
- dok. Pixabay
Bounme, the assistant director at the Transformation Center, one of only two privately-run rehabilitation centres in the country said that while “everything got more expensive” in Laos during COVID-19, “drugs got cheaper, a lot cheaper.” He preferred to be identified only by one name.
"Drug users tell me one piece of yaba is 5,000 to 7,000 kip ($0.24 to $0.34 or about IDR 8,000 to IDR 10,000) now,” said Bounme, who interviews new patients entering the clinic.
“If you buy a pack of 200, you can get it as cheap as 2,500 ($0.12 or about IDR 3 thousand) per pill,"
The Golden Triangle, the remote area in which the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet, has long been one of the world’s major drug-producing hotspots.
Historically, it was notorious for opium, but recent years have seen drug syndicates turn to producing methamphetamine pills and crystal meth – a distilled, more potent and expensive variety of the drug.
Groups in Myanmar are at the heart of this trade, most prominently Shan state – a war-torn region in the country’s east sharing a long, porous border with Laos.
Ilustrasi narkoba.
- Pixabay/the3cats
