Press
Release
“Poisoned
Flowers”
Palaung
women reveal harsh costs of failed drug policies in
A
new report by the Palaung Women's Organization (PWO) details how increased opium
production and addiction is devastating Palaung communities in northern
The
report, Poisoned Flowers: The Impacts of Spiraling Drug Addiction on Palaung
Women in Burma, based on interviews with eighty-eight wives and mothers of
drug addicts, shows how women in Palaung areas have become increasingly
vulnerable due to the rising addiction rates. Already living in dire poverty,
with little access to education or health care, wives of addicts must struggle
single-handedly to support as many as ten children.
Addicted
husbands not only stop providing for their families, but also sell off property
and possessions, commit theft, and subject their wives and children to repeated
verbal and physical abuse. The report details cases of women losing eight out of
eleven children to disease and of daughters being trafficked by their addicted
father.
The
increased addiction rates have resulted from the regime allowing drug lords to
expand production into Palaung areas in recent years, in exchange for policing
against resistance activity and sharing drug profits. The collapse of markets
for tea and other crops has driven more and more farmers to turn to opium
growing or to work as labourers in opium fields, where wages are frequently paid
in opium.
The
report throws into question claims by the regime and the UNODC of a dramatic
reduction of opium production in
“Opium
eradication in
“We
hope that the courage of these women in sharing these stories empowers all
efforts to effectively curb the production of drugs,” write Malaysian MP
Teresa
Kok
and Philippine Congresswoman Loretta
Ann P. Rosales
in their foreword to the report. “The drug problem in
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more information:
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