More than 900 former opium addicts in Luang Prabang province, who had been detoxified, have returned to opium consumption, said the Head of the Luang Prabang provincial Committee for Drug Control and Supervision, Mr B ounheuang Bulyaphol.
He said in an interview yesterday that 934 people had resumed opium use, while 109 had begun using the drug for the first time and 455 addicts had yet to be detoxified, making a total of 1,498 opium addicts, including 239 women. In 2000, the province had more than 6,200 opium addicts
“We are now waiting for the budget from our central commission so that we can treat these people. The commission's goal is to have no addicts by the end of this year, but this province will be able to complete the treatment of only about 50 percent of our more than 1,000 opium addicts by that time, if we get funding,” Mr Bounheuang said.
“We have some 600 people who are very strongly addicted and cannot easily give up the habit, requiring long term treatment, while we think the rest can completely detoxify in about 15 days.”
He said that this week provincial officials will recheck the areas where opium poppies had been planted in the past after a 142-hectare plantation was discovered and destroyed last year.
Poppy farmers will have to be re-educated on the law and regulations, after many of the families in Viengkham district were fined more than 30 million kip for growing opium poppies. They had signed a contract agreeing they would not grow the crop.
“We have received a report from local authorities in Ngoy district saying there are currently 19 hectares of poppies under cultivation in 14 villages there, grown by opium addicts. They are not producing opium for sale but for private consumption and medicinal purposes,” Mr Bounheuang said.
Luang Prabang province also faces a growing amphetamine problem with more than 4,700 addicts; they will be able to get treatment after a rehabilitation centre is built there next year.
The government of Japan has agreed to provide more than US$86,100 in grant aid to the province to build the centre under the grant assistance scheme for Grassroots Human Security Projects.
The Luang Prabang Rehab Centre will be able to treat 50 addicts for periods of three months each, and will be able to rehabilitate around 200 people each year.
In addressing drug problems in the border areas, Laos signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Asean and China , with the objective of eliminating drug abuse in the region by 2015.
