Residents of the town of Mong Yaw, 25 miles northeast of Lashio and its 17 surrounding villages, are finding it hard to prevent their youth from using drugs, according to concerned parents there.
“They are even selling yaba at school,” said a mother. “Now we can’t keep anything of value at home unless we lock it up where they can’t easily take it away and sell to buy drugs.”
Yaba, high quality, is 4,000 kyat ($ 5) per pill and yaba, low quality, is 1,700 kyat ($ 2.13) per pill in Mong Yaw. Among the users are women too.
The town has Ma Htu Naw’s KDA (Kachin Defense Army, ceasefire army turned-militia) in the north and Bo Mon’s Manpang People’s Militia Force (PMF) in the south, both known for their heavy involvement in drug production and trade. It also has a police station and a Burma Army unit, usually Lashio-based Infantry Battalion (IB) # 41 or 68. “The police do nothing,” said a townsman, “and the army is satisfied if there are a civilian truck and villagers taking turns each day to work at the command post.”
One of the counter measures generally used by the populace is to send their children away to Thailand where it is more difficult to buy drugs. The travel fare from Mong Yaw to Thailand (a distance of about 714 km) is around 300,000 kyat ($ 375).
At the same time, a large number of migrant workers from the kingdom are returning to Burma for the seasonal opium harvest which ends this month. The KDA and Manpang-controlled areas are known to be major opium producers.
According to Shan Drug Watch report 2011, only 12 out of 55 townships are considered opium free, 8 of which are townships under the control of ceasefire armies. Others, most of them under the control of the Burma Army and its PMFs and BGFs (Border Guard Forces) had increased production during the last season.
SHAN is working to publish the Shan Drug Watch report 2012 in June.
