Jinn of Current Events

The Economist (2004-May-01): the Laotian government's pledge last year to end the cultivation of opium poppies by 2005 was music to the ears of international narcotics-control agencies and donor governments alike. But in a country where 40% of the population are hill-tribesmen, many of them dependent on opium as a cash-crop and for medicine, it is proving tricky. ... the war on drugs [has] already caused the displacement of some 25,000 Hmong, Akha, and other tribes from their traditional homes to the valleys ... malaria and dysentery have ravaged the resettled villages and annual mortality rates have risen to 4% on average ... The national rate is 1.2%. ... International drug policies imposed by the UN are unfair to the Laotian people, since by contrast many farmers in India and Turkey are paid to legally cultivate opium (necessary for the production of pain-killers).