7. Has the violence of the yaa baa trade waned in southeast Asia? Has the rise in Afghan poppy cultivation following the US invasion caused an uptick in more sedative drugs (opium and heroin)? [128]

I wish it had, but I don’t think so. As far as I can tell, most if not all the poppy product from Afghanistan and Burma is sent West. Government suppression of the opiates at street level is quite successful in most of Southeast Asia. On the other hand, yaa baa – met amphetamine – is very easy to produce in bulk, very cheap, and very difficult if not impossible to suppress because it can be manufactured anywhere. It is therefore the ideal “poor farmer’s” drug. A great deal of production and abuse takes place in the countryside where so many families live in a state of constant despair. Young men in particular are vulnerable. Destructive though opium derivatives can be, I do not think they are as destructive to life and brain as yaa baa.

It is, of course, symptomatic of the problem – and an expression of the ‘functional barbarism’ - that by vigorously suppressing other drugs, we end up with widespread dependence of the poorest and most vulnerable on the worst narcotics of all: yaa baa, alcohol, paint and glue etc. I fear this is all about governments – and perhaps some NGO’s – spinning reality to try to show the war on drugs can still be won, when in truth it was lost long ago. Where’s the value in saving someone from herion if they go on to die from meths or in an alcohol-induced car crash?

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