Opium poppies have been found growing in seven districts of Xieng Khuang province.  The biggest crops were discovered in Kham and Phoukoud districts, Deputy Head of the province’s Drug Inspection and Supervision Department, Lieutenant Colonel Pakorlor Yongveu, told Vientiane Times on Thursday.

“The Xieng Khuang provincial Public Security Department teamed up with the Office of Public Security and local authorities in Kham district to destroy five hectares of poppies in Nhort Lieng village. Some of the plants were 20-40 centimetres high and had already started to flower,” he said.

Nine families caught growing the illegal crop are being educated about the dangers of drugs and encouraged to grow alternative, legal crops, Lieutenant Colonel Pakorlor added. 

He also told Vientiane Times of another 8.6 hectares of poppies that were found and destroyed at eight different sites in Khoun district. These plants were found before harvesting had begun.

“We are cooperating with district authorities in Khoun to survey the entire area. We expect to destroy over 10 hectares of opium poppies in the coming months,” Lieutenant Colonel Pakorlor said.

In 2012, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that opium cultivation was on the increase again after Laos had declared itself virtually free of the crop in 2006.

In 1998, almost 27,000 hectares of opium poppies were under cultivation in Laos.  This was reduced to just 1,500 hectares by 2006 but since then a steady increase in the number of poppy plantations has occurred. 

The bulk of Laos’ opium is consumed locally.   Four northern provinces that border Myanmar, China and Vietnam are where most poppy cultivation occurs. A UNODC report names Phongsaly, Luang Namtha, Huaphan and Luang Prabang as the places where poppies are most likely to be grown.

Unemployment, poverty and the absence of alternative sources of income make poppy cultivation more likely in rural areas. Enviable profits to be made in the sale of the drug also makes its cultivation attractive to villagers.