Inside Myanmar's Soaring Heroin Trade

after decades of dictatorship Myanmar is opening to the world once a backwater places like in lay lake and now on the bucket list for hundreds of thousands of tourists every year in lay Lake is one of the treasures of Myanmar for generations the info people have lived and fished and even farmed on these waters there are vegetable gardens floating all around us here and that's where they grow tomatoes garlic onions everything they need for their daily life there is a tourism boom underway and things are changing but for now there is a semblance of traditional life this is the Myanmar that the government wants foreign visitors to save but not far away just over these mountains in southern Shan state lies another world where tourists are definitely not welcome this is opium country tucked away near the notorious Golden Triangle almost 600 square kilometres carpeted by poppies Myanmar better known to many people as Burma is now the world's second biggest producer of opium after Afghanistan most of the heroin on the streets of Australia comes from here we've come to the source of that heroin to meet the people who depend on the poppy those who grow it and those who use it and will journey to a remote village where some are trying to change oh he had my the outdoor they are handy came to see ya when I did my walk here but my money's gonna keep him like you loudmouth don't know you know for workers like Nam Kham stray poppies are simply a valuable nong has never tried opium and has only the vaguest idea of what happens to the cans of sticky SAP once the trader collects them from her village the United Nations estimates around 200 thousand households are involved in poppy cultivation across Myanmar the harvest has more than doubled in the last on average each worker makes less than a thousand dollars a year taxes from the trade have helped to bankroll one of the world's longest running civil wars between ethnic Shawn and the Burmese military all sides in this conflict to believe to have lined their pockets with drug money including some in the military regime that ruled the country until recently standing here as the Sun Goes Down over this absolutely beautiful valley surrounded by poppies it's hard to believe that this area has seen so much conflict all of it driven by opium the opium is fueling conflict but conflict is also fueling opium production so in that sense it's right there it's at the call the local founders are not getting rich on this opium production not at all this is a way to survive of course the higher you get in the ranks the more money that get into it so if you are transporting the drugs at a higher level you might get some more if you're talking about the top the shoots organized crime once the opium is harvested the traders collect the product from the farmgate sometimes in exchange for pre-ordered goods it's the Shan State equivalent of online shopping the opium is carried down from the mountains by traders trucks and literally by drug mules closer to the border it's turned into heroin and smuggled through China Thailand and onto the global market including Australia we're talking about tons and tons of hearing and unfortunately for Australia that hairiness is on a large scale going to Australia it's not coming from Afghanistan so I think most Australians would probably think this coming from Afghanistan but but it's not true it's actually from from ilma as much as eighty percent of Australia's heroin comes from here but most of the crop doesn't make it that far it ends up in China which has by far the largest number of heroin users in Asia we're heading to northern Shan State following the busy trading route that carries Myanmar's timber gold gemstones and opium to the outside world this narrow mountain road was once a key supply route for Allied forces in World War two thousands of mostly Chinese laborers died building it these days the victims are usually the trucks a misjudged turn can be fatal though more often it means a long traffic jam in our case 22 hours at long long last we move again the traffic event has been the talk of Myanmar after two nights stuck in the van the conversation has lost its way love you man at the end of the road is the bustling border town of Musa it's Myanmar's busiest border crossing to china trade both ways is approaching five billion dollars this year the locals all want a piece of the action in China you can see through the gate just a glimpse of the prosperity beyond the people on this side and the advance side are lining up to get day visas if they're lucky and weak visa they can go one but not all Myanmar's opium leaves the country locally the supplies cheap and all too abundant as we discover just a short distance away like so many small towns here in northern Shan and bordering kitchen state Narvekar is in the grip of an epidemic it's isolated there are very few jobs and it's flooded with pure heroin 68 year-old dolly has buried two of her sons immediately yum-yum-yum your body I thought haha but we don't know cherish ring tone acharya change amma be the did Hamidi trudeau so no Chong Sabha me III Malevich outdoor songs about the meta male like Bhima in mamalu dog come on pursue laoda but why I lose takes no silly I'm Italia icon Adeline may need to attend a tree somewhere know who come there are Tomas who wrote to her - Toby ma Ellul Edomite a needy Lupe I understand you'd have three sons and one of them is still alive still with us can you tell me about his situation in Ghana don't say be my daughter mmm jameelah true to a coup de Luna Chima Lazaro say tomorrow Carrabba tomato later cool door to the euro Nene who are permitting a good to go to learn Liu Yan lebu mal appear not too late to a guru Lu me pissing on earth tamales Jews are more assimilated a Dooley's oldest two sons are buried here it takes a while to find their graves incredibly the local pastor says he's buried 336 drug users from his congregation alone for so many people caught up in the heroin scourge here in the town of number Carr and in other places around Shan State this unfortunately is how it all ends up this incredibly simple grave is just the most recent person that pastor brung on has buried here in this graveyard that's filled with the victims of drug abuse there's no escaping the epidemic as we're about to finish filming in the cemetery a man wanders in to shoot up some heroin users do seek help this is about as basic as rehab gets it's run by the local church users are forced to quit cold-turkey in a community of just 20,000 people there are 22 Church run rehab centers maintained by Pastor Brun own and other ministers so if you were walking down the street and you met five men how many do you think would be using heroin yeah two or three yeah two or three out of every five people here are probably using heroin that's huge it's a huge problem all of the addicts here are kichan Christians naira has been using for 20 years yeah they lose half its huh man I suck room common sight at mature and you can certainly moon like a party moon Lewis good I'm a good medium or misshapen or something like Monsieur yeah yeah they need to cut it more money in recruiting make it wrong my money like a magnet here Wrong Luna demon never break something about our supreme homes Holloway sees you do me can crush me on Monday let my mom see you free porn mg can connect with you to go all this Hamacher home chief see ya tape it until ok from Charlie okay from Charlie acuña my double heart along young when you take down the government does nothing about the spiraling addiction here drug traffickers operate freely while this clinic is left to struggle with nothing more than goodwill and song if there's no change what happens to this town this home will be gone because of heroin yeah because of the HERA man typing away Himmler Bangkok came out they waited up hell why he the Shan people are Myanmar's largest minority for centuries they have occupied the Shan plateau the descends from the mountains of western China like many of Myanmar's minorities they suffered under the Burmese military they have few economic prospects other than opium production long had a nasty burn yo we're on the way to meet a determined group of villagers who've decided to try something new and if it works there's hope it could bring change to the entire region it's only been in the last few years that the United Nations has had access to this part of Shan State which is where the bulk of Myanmar's opium is grown it's an extremely mountainous rugged area the roads as you can probably tell her pretty wild and not for the faint-hearted in the wet season they're impossible in many places but at this time of year it's okay we can get through the poppies are in full bloom and the harvest is underway until recently this area was the frontline for more than 60 years the Shan State Army and other insurgent groups fought the Burmese military for an independent homeland the conflict claimed thousands of lives and forced many people into makeshift camps to the north the fighting continues but here a ceasefire means it's mostly calm for now but no one really knows how long it will last as we make our way along the dirt track our convoy encounters a Shan State Army roadblock let's meet you they're not about to admit to a foreign film crew that they have anything to do with the opium crop community Ip Man if you want one that'd put them time and money alternative crops are an idea that's been tried before with rubber trees sesame even citrus fruit all failing to deliver farmers an income that matches opium this time the United Nations is banking on coffee so far 800 opium farming families have signed up to the UN's crop substitution program and the first small batch of coffee is expected at the end of the year here an isolated Pullum village locals have few foreign visitors other than the occasional UN official after years of being trapped in the opium trade they came to take control of their lives opium has underpinned much of Myanmar's recent economic development but they're not seeing the benefits in remote areas like this I'm ready to live a chance day sorry you mama one of the early adopters of the UN coffee program is pärnu who's lived here all the first 67 years man I was in good pop in mom and after the fire par news husband died leaving her to raise the children in the midst of a civil war they are not helping their bosavi Monica I can convey a hit for me Lupin King Gandhi who have you come me for how can call me Connie okay we didn't okay well you'll need well coming up can I go pee again like many Shawn men Pannu's son left for Thailand to find employment she hopes that one day she'll sell enough coffee to bring him home and we know how hope is running high right across Myanmar after the historic election that saw the end of military rule the new democratically elected government must bring stability to a nation where few remember peace some just aren't prepared to wait in northern Myanmar anti-drug vigilantes have begun destroying poppy fields and banishing drug dealers fighting back against a trade that has ruined thousands of lives many here want change Akua Deleuze Shimizu roller to rumah to me an open-air igneel like to bid or daruka me Allah we wanted the [ __ ] of maquette poo so let's get any I general check them except Buddha Mia so maybe I'm kidding me I really miss Adama me tomorrow do you know in Europe a very not a roomy patio Palladio poor no tomato luma key a rule or a people tomorrow Anna Nero no Timmy Ludo China be nippin madam me a call tomorrow di Lucca Louie chin chin Terrapin gonzo Noel de pano to Lucy no kutiman Metiria Turei taketori Lula piacere with a median Twitter a Lula piacere Premila rotini one cookie making time they want one hair color to be aa didn't work okay welcome on the main is it right for me I bought them the label paper back light bar light open long they've been wounded one they've been knighted learn oh my

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 3,648,178

Rating: 4.6869583 out of 5

Keywords: myanmar, poppy farmer, current affairs, opium farmer, world news, documentary, opium, drugs, organized crime, burma, opium field, opium harvest, heroin dealer, international drug trade, Asian cartel, journeyman pictures, news

Id: _5zC1WitvLw

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 11 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/ATL-hoe]

is this opening a different doc to anyone else??

death of yugoslavia?