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The Vietnam News |
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BA VI - A sharp blast from a shrill whistle
calls around 300 emaciated and
tattooed Vietnam heroin addicts to
muster.
Vietnam heroin abuse booms as opium wiltsThe pyjama-clad men shuffle out of crowded, concrete rooms and stare vacantly as they spend 10 lacklustre minutes moving through orchestrated early morning exercise at Re-education Centre 06 at Ba Vi, 60 km (37 miles) west of Hanoi. Up to 20 percent of these hardcore heroin abusers may have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and for all the men it is the latest stop on a journey which has seen them tumble into drug addiction, crime and desperation. As doors into communist Vietnam creaked open in the past decade heroin abuse has boomed, leaving the poverty-stricken country struggling to cope with myriad social problems. For generations, Vietnam's drug of choice had been opium, which was widely grown and encouraged under French rule. But by the early 1990s Hanoi moved to eradicate the crop. At Hang Kia, a remote northern mountain commune near Vietnam's border with Laos, where once opium poppies stretched as far as the eye could see, there are now plums. These sour fruit have sweetened life for Hmong ethnic minority people in this highland valley, with most farmers saying incomes are higher than with opium. ``People have grown opium for generations, hundreds of years,'' said local farmer and former addict Sung A Sa. ``As long as there have been people there has been opium.'' But by 1993, in the twin communes of Hang Kia and Pa Co in Mai Chau district some 170 km (106 miles) west of Hanoi, hit squads arrived to slash poppies in a national campaign which led to almost total elimination of the crop. ``I used to smoke opium, but stopped when they banned growing it,'' said Vung A Vo. ``By growing plums I can make a profit and get income for my family.'' The opium may be almost gone, but experts say heroin arrived as a by-product of Vietnam being an emerging transit point for drugs from the infamous Golden Triangle. In the nearby settlement of Mai Chau an elderly man from the White Thai ethnic minority -- a group not traditionally involved in opium cultivation -- bemoaned what he saw as a breakdown in the community's traditional hierarchy. ``We never had drug problems here, but now the drugs and alcohol situation is terrible,'' he said. He added that students returning from studies in Hanoi brought back crime and heroin habits, while an influx of foreign backpackers had created demand for drug dealers -- a market that was spilling over into young villagers. Jens Hannibal, representative for the U.N. Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in Vietnam, said trafficking and abuse went hand-in-hand. ``Because of the trafficking the problem is not going away and ...we now have reports of villagers starting to use heroin,'' he said. The picture in the cities -- which are home to most of Vietnam's estimated 100,000 drug addicts -- has become particularly gloomy, where detected heroin addiction rates have soared by hundreds of percent over recent years. Shooting galleries and dealers can be found across urban Vietnam, and around 65 percent of users are aged under 25. Decades of war, poverty and strict communist controls have left Vietnam with almost no developed youth culture. While mini-skirts and stack-heels are common in large cities, rock-'n'-roll has yet to penetrate and young rebels can be found illegally racing motorbikes, singing karaoke, visiting prostitutes and shooting heroin. Bombed-out addicts are a common sight in Hanoi parks, while residents complain of rising levels of petty crime. Nguyen Vi Hung, chief of Hanoi's anti-social evils department -- the body charged with eradicating drugs, prostitution and other subversive cultural activities -- blamed the new market economy. ``They are gradually forming trafficking rings and retail points in the city and we are not experienced enough to combat the situation,'' he told Reuters. Officials say busts, seizures and prosecutions are running at record levels. Media reports have said that in 1998 local courts dished out death sentences to 49 drug offenders. The UNDCP's Hannibal said seizures had risen steadily in the past couple of years but in the first five months of 1999 jumped a record 80 percent over the same period last year. ``We hope it is because they are more efficient, but how can you tell?'' he said. Six months' cold turkey greets Hanoi addicts at Re-education Centre 06. They have been removed from society by the authorities or long-suffering relatives in a bid to kill the habit. Nestled in lush, green hills in the shadow of army firing ranges and just down the road from Centre 05 which houses prostitutes, 318 addicts withdraw and undergo physical exercise, work and strict discipline. They are taught of the dangers of drugs, government policy and how to become model citizens. But anti-social evils chief Hung said re-addiction rates for former camp inmates were as high as 85 percent. Vu Huy Luan, director of Centre 06, said most camp addicts expressed a genuine desire to kick the habit, but once they were freed many slipped back into old ways. He stopped short of seeing them as victims, but said he was sympathetic to their plight. ``We want to give advice...so that when they return home they feel regret and change their lifestyle. Most of them have chosen the wrong way and they are also criminals,'' he said. Reuters - July 21, 1999. |