Opium and shifting cultivation in Laos: state discourses and policies.

Abstract

Abstract The government of Lao PDR recently adopted a hard-line policy towards opium poppy cultivation by upland minorities in the country's northern provinces, with measures including rapid crop eradication and reduction of demand. This prohibitionist policy is linked to a discourse that regards opium as both a form of shifting cultivation and a narcotic drug, and as such, a major cause of poverty. By contrast, the attitude of the French colonial government in Laos was both benign and utilitarian in its regard for opium; it was used as a crucial source of state revenue. Even the communist government of Laos proclaimed the fiscal importance of opium as recently as the 1980s. This chapter explains this radical discursive and policy change in terms of the convergence of both foreign and domestic factors and offers a brief comparison with the gradualist policies of neighbouring Thailand. It also examines the immediate impact of the rapid elimination of opium in Laos and assesses the longer-term prospects of rubber as the major replacement crop.