Drugs and prostitution flourish in

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January 3, 1998
Bangkok Post
HILLTRIBES
Drugs and prostitution flourish in quiet village
Education neglected by addicted parents

Anjira Assavanonda

Ban Vanaluang is a remote hilltribe village on the northern tip of
Thailand. At first glance, it looks like any other village, quiet and
peaceful, but the outward calm belies a dark side of drugs and
prostitution which have flourished for years.

Its inhabitants are Muser who have never seen the risk posed by drugs
such as opium and heroin. Even children talk about them freely as if they
were part of their daily chore.

"Drugs? Of course I know them. There are a lot of addicts in my village.
People from Burma bring them here for sale. We called them 'ya khao',"
said Jayor, a 15-year-old Muser boy, referring to heroin.

"My father is a heroin addict. He goes out everyday to cut wood in the
forest for sale. All the money he gets is spent on drugs," said Jayor.

Sometimes the boy goes with his father. They are paid at least 100 baht
for one piece of wood, a meagre sum considering one pack of heroin costs
about 1,000 baht.

Unlike his father, Jayor has never been addicted to drugs. He and his
brothers and sisters realise its dangers and his father has never tried
to lead them into the habit.

Jayor said over 100 people in his village were addicts, most of them men.

Drugs trade was rampant both inside and outside his village. A survey by
Mae Hong Son Hilltribe Development Centre in 1993 found that there were
at least five main drug dealers, and more than 50 distributors around Ban
Vanaluang.

According to the survey, drugs were smuggled through other hilltribe
villages along Thai-Burmese border, such as Ban Ae Tho and Ban Saen Kam
Lue, passing Tam Lod to Ban Vanaluang where people from nearby villages
would come to buy.

The prevalence of drugs in this community has led parents to neglect
their children, driving them into prostitution and raising concern about
the future of hilltribe children.

A teacher at Ban Vanaluang School, which has 114 Muser students, said 90
percent of ther parents were addicts. While most villagers used to be
addicted to heroin, lately they have also taken to amphetamines.

Many children are familiar with drugs from a very young age. When the
school is in recess, some go out with their parents to help collect
resins from poppy plants.

The teacher said many of her students were neglected because their
parents paid attention to nothing else but drugs. Some children were left
alone at home with nobody to look after them and nothing to eat.

"So when they come to school, I have to dig into my pocket to buy food
and cook for them. Sometimes I feel discouraged and sorry because I
couldn't do more for them," said another teacher.

Besides, some students missed classes because they had to look after
their younger brothers and sisters as their parents were out in the field
picking poppy.

Child prostitution was another problem. The attitude of Muser people
allowing for sex before marriage made it easy for the girls to enter the
flesh trade.

The Muser culture allows a man and a woman to have sexual relationship
before marriage. At first Muser people usually had sex within their tribe
and that was not a problem but the situation deteriorated when people
from other hilltribe villages started joining in.

"Muser girls are usually pretty. They look clean and have fair skin and
that attract a lot of men from other villages who come to seek these
girls just for temporary pleasure," said the teacher.

These outsiders usually leave after having sex, paying the girls in cash
in return for their favours. That's how child prostitution got started in
Ban Vanaluang, he explained.

"Today when an outsider comes, a pimp would be on hand to take him to a
place where girls would be waiting," said the teacher.

Some girls left school at the tender age of 13-15 after falling in love
with men from other villages. Some were sold at 5,000-10,000 baht by
their parents who were addicts. Many were deceived into joining the flesh
trade in Chiang Mai.

With outsiders coming in, the primitive life and culture of Muser people
was destroyed with girls chasing the neon lights of the city in ever
increasing numbers.

Some children, both boys and girls, sneaked out at night to watch nude
videos played in their neighbouhoods. The videos were brought by
villagers who worked in the city.

Teachers taught students to distinguish right from wrong and even
punished those found going out at night but with little success. Their
appeal to parents to help discipline their children also went largely
unheeded.

Drugs and prostitution led to Aids. Many villagers have died as a result
while several more are infected with the deadly Aids virus, though only
ten would openly admit it, according to the teacher.

Another problem is gambling, with community leaders showing the way.

The teacher told a story of a "diligent girl" who always scored high
marks in class. Once she was absent for two days and the teacher found
later that her parents had taken her with them to deal cards two nights
running.

"All the bad things are here - drugs, prostitution, Aids, and gambling.
The problems are too big for only two teachers to handle. I hope things
would be better someday," said one.

The remote location of the school makes it difficult to seek assistance
from the government. Last year four students received uniforms - two boys
and two girls. Of course, the needs are much more: uniforms, lunch and
education materials, among others.