Laos still producing opium

Bangkok Post
27.06.2006

(dpa) - Land-locked Laos' Opium cultivation in land-locked Laos this year is up 39% in some northern areas neighbouring China and Vietnam where neither "carrot nor stick" has reached opium growers, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Monday.

The area under opium cultivation was estimated at 2,500 hectares in 2006 compared with 1,800 hectares in 2005, according to the UNODC's latest international report on the world's illicit drug industry.

While Laos' opium cultivation was up in 2006, producing an estimated 20 tons of the illicit crop, it is still down drastically from the 26,800 hectares under cultivation in 1998.

"This is a remarkable achievement by the government and people of Laos, which was once the third largest illicit producer of opium in the world," UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in a statement.

The Lao government, with assistance from the UNODC, launched in 1999 a crop-substitution programme for farmers engaged in opium cultivation that has thus far assisted 72,000 rural households.

But the programme, for lack of international funding, has yet to reach Laos' remotest regions, especially in its northern provinces neighbouring China and Vietnam, said UNODC Laos country representative Leik Boonwatt.

"These provinces have not really been targeted by the crop-substituion progamme yet. It doesn't reach them," said Boonwatt, in a telephone interview from Vientiane.

"Some 50 per cent of the opium farmers have not received assistance under the crop substitution programme, so they haven't got much incentive to stop, and the government is reluctant to apply too much pressure in these remote areas, especially if there is nothing else for them to grow to make money," said Boonwatt.

Opium prices in 2006 reached $550 per kilogram, up 5 per cent from 2005 prices.

"The strong opium prices make it more attractive for farmers to revert to opium production, especially if no alternative sources of income are available," the UNODC chief Costa. "It is therefore of paramount importance to provide relief and development assistance to the most affected population.

"The situation remains fragile, especially in the more vulnerable remote northern locations," he said. "We need to ensure that this victory against drugs proves to be lasting."