Chapter 14
The Golden Triangle-The Source of Hong Kong's Illicit Drugs
Hong Kong grows no opium poppies. All opiate drugs abused here come from the notorious "Golden Triangle", the opium growing area where the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos meet. Opium produced in this area is estimated to meet more than half the world's demand for illicit drugs. Towards the end of 1976, there were indications that opium farmers there would be reaping a bumper crop in the spring, with about 600 metric tons to be harvested in Burma, and 100 metric tons in Thailand and Laos. (See illustration on p. 65.)
2 The Golden Triangle is a mountainous, forest-covered area of about 194,000 sq. km. (75,000 square miles), the soil and climate of which are ideal for the cultivation of poppies. It is inhabited by a tribal population of up to 1,000,000 scattered over 3,000 or so villages. Since the beginning of the century, the opium poppy has been the most important cash crop supporting their meagre livelihood. In an inaccessible area where transport is either by back-pack or by mules, the hill tribes have hitherto preferred opium to other crops in view of its high value-weight ratio, and the ready market provided by the international traffickers.
3 Opium produced in the Golden Triangle is used to supply illicit markets thousands of miles away, and it also supports the increasingly serious addiction problems within Thailand, Burma and Laos. Thailand officially admits to an addict population of about 500,000. In the other two countries, heroin addiction is believed to pose a serious threat to the younger generation although accurate numbers are not yet known.
4
The governments of these three countries are faced with enormous difficulties in their efforts to suppress opium production and trafficking in the region. Law enforcement action is seriously hampered by the inaccessibility of the mountainous terrain, and by the presence of many armed minority-group factions of different political backgrounds and affiliations, which use opium-derived revenue as a means of supporting their insurgencies or other objectives. Opium has also been used for a great many years, in an area where clinics and other medical facilities are practically non-existent, as a home medicine for a variety of complaints. But the position of the opium-poppy as the main cash-crop of most of the hill- tribes presents the greatest difficulty. Before the tribesmen can be persuaded to give up opium cultivation, they must be provided with alternatives that will offer a livelihood at least as good as the poppy does. The control of the narcotics menace in the Golden Triangle will therefore be a difficult task, the resolution of which will depend on the ability and willingness of the governments concerned and the international community to supply the considerable resources which will be needed. There were encouraging signs during the year that the Governments of Burma, Thailand and Laos were all taking more positive action, and were considering longer-term programmes to deal with the problem.
Thailand
5 In 1976, Thailand significantly stepped up its law enforcement action. The country reported a total seizure of 9.6 metric tons of drugs in terms of raw
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opium (a standard measurement) during the year, compared with 3.4 metric tons in 1975. In Bangkok, which is now thought to be a major drug exporting centre, the Metropolitan Police arrested over 15,000 people, including four drug producers and ab 1,200 pushers.
6
Euraging as these figures are, the fact remains that the problem cannot be solved by law enforcement action alone. As narcotics experts see it, the long- term solution lies in the success of the current crop substitution pilot programme which aims at persuading the tribesmen in Northwest Thailand to grow other crops instead of opium. The US$7 millions programme, jointly financed by the Thai Government and the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control (UNFDAC), is being carried out in 30 of the 700 villages which are engaged in opium farming in Northwest Thailand. Experiments have been completed with fruits, flowers, vegetables, pyrethrum, coffee, tea, beans and tobacco. With the five-year programme now entering its final year, the villagers are selling their first crops of coffee and kidney beans while other tribes are watching with interest to see how they fare financially. (See illustration on p. 65.)
7 Meanwhile, UNFDAC has decided to continue financing the programme for three more years, albeit on a reducing scale. The Thai Government, on the other hand, is considering ways and means of extending the programme to the other 700 opium-growing villages.
Burma
8
In May, the Burmese Government signed an agreement with the United Nations to launch a five-year national programme for drug abuse control. The programme will be a multi-sectoral one, embracing crop substitution, treatment and rehabilitation, preventive education, law enforcement and social welfare. UNFDAC will contribute US$6.5 millions to the programme and, during the same period, the Burmese Government will respond with US$7 millions in cash and "in kind". The signing of the agreement, in addition to the strengthened para- military action taken against drug traffickers in the Golden Triangle section of the country, demonstrated the intention of the Burmese Government to step-up its fight against the narcotics menace.
Laos
9
The Laos Government has reiterated its commitment to drug abuse control and its intention to implement the provisions of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, to which it is a party. To this end, the United Nations is giving assistance to the Government in making preparations for an anti- narcotics programme, which will include the progressive elimination of opium cultivation over a period of ten years.
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