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when the weather in that year was bad. This indicated that only 20-30 tons of opium can be yearly produced in Laos. The opium markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hongkong receive the opium from Burma which channel through Thailand-the most convenient country, but most of the opium sent from Burma is the raw one.
Judging from various circumstances, opium grown in Southeast Asia should be consumed in Southeast Asian countries only. But the opium sent to Europe and America is mostly from Indian and Turkey, which are nearer and have better communication lines. The masterminds of processed heroin must be by all means in Thailand and Burma on the grounds that heroin was produced after the ban of smoking opium by using the pipe and the fire-lamp in the reign of late Field Marshal Sarith Thanarath.
HOW CAN WE SUPPRESS AND SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF GROWING OPIUM?
As I studied from the methods of the World Organization, the suppression campaign has to be launched against its trafficking and its trading. It means that we have to crack down the opium merchants not to suppress the opium growing. This will lead to decreasing number of opium year after year to the nonexistence. There are two different methods to eradicate the opium business. They are:
1. To stop its trading and delivering to foreign countries.
2. To ban any opium growing and destroy all its seeds.
The world Narcotics Suppression Organization has been so far launching a drastic campaign of arresting merchants and halting opium traffic only. No other better methods that the Organization can work out now.
In order to suppress the merchants dealing in opium and delivering it abroad, the Organization should have a fund for buying all opium from the remote Khouengs. The opium which the Organization buys can be used in medical treat- ment, and if some of it is left, the Organization should throw it away into the ocean. The Organization can do like this every year. But doing this, there will be no end. and the countries which finance the destruction operations will not be tolerate. As for the banning of growing opium, I think that it is a better way but the Organization has to provide a great amount of fund. The budget allocated to the Organization for suppressing the narcotics dealers should be given to the tribesmen as follows:
(1) To provide the tribesmen with enough food,
(2) To provide them with clothings.
(3) To provide them with medicines, hospital and doctors.
(4) To provide them with houses.
(5) To provide them with schools, teachers and teaching materials. (6) To provide them with self-defense.
As I already mentioned, over one million population in Laos is living in the mountainous areas. They all have to work hard for their sole product in a year. The opium crop sometimes cannot bring their families good living. Now, I'm going to tell you about the six existing problems that I call upon the Organization to provide aids to.
1. Food: This is the prolonged problem that has not been thrashed out since the ancient time, because the gross production in each family when the rain is in season does not cost over 250.000 kip.
2. Clothing: The tribesmen do not have time to make cloth as they have to engage themselves in growing rice and opium. They have never grown cotton before. Rice and opium are regarded significant products of these people for exchanging.
3. Shelters: Most of the tribesmen's houses are temporarily built; they have to move to other places whenever their farmland cannot bring them good prod- ucts-that's about 2 years their thatched houses with 3-stepped ladder will be moved. They normally are not fond of their houses because of no beauty at all. 4. Public Health: The public health for these people is considered very bad. Most of the new babies-70 per cent got neumornia and some died; they do not have clothes, just get warm from sitting near fire. The government cannot set up a hospital for them on the grounds that there are not many houses and each house is located dispersely. The sick people have never got used to medicines but spiritual things. Sometimes the villagers have to abandon their houses when some of them die of unknown diseases. They believe in ghost or bad spirits. The major problem which causes the people to believe in superstition is that the government
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