Myanmar’s lost generation struggles with trauma and addiction at jungle rehabilitation center

MAE SOT, Thailand — At a drug treatment center in a wooden house on stilts deep in the Thai jungle, young Myanmar refugees wait patiently for an acupuncture needle.

They are among thousands of people addicted to methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs who have flooded camps housing people forced from their homes by Myanmar’s civil war.

Myanmar’s military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in a coup in February 2021, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands, displaced nearly three million and sparked a drug production boom.

A cross-border rehabilitation program in Thailand for former drug addicts is trying to help stem the rise of addiction among young people living in camps.

“The youth from the camps are hopeless… they don’t know what to do. They have no job security or future security,” says Mareep, a counselor and former drug addict who uses a pseudonym because of the stigma associated with addiction.

“They end up taking drugs. Drugs are easy to find in the camps,” the 34-year-old man told AFP at the camp in a remote forested area in Thailand’s western Tak province.

The Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation and Education Center (Dare), funded by the UN and other aid agencies, uses acupuncture as part of its regimen, along with massage to reduce drug cravings and yoga to help cope with severe withdrawal pains.

The group operates in five refugee camps as well as more than 40 villages in Myanmar’s Karen State and claims 60 percent success in its 90-day treatment program.

He did not allow AFP to speak to any of his patients or former patients, saying it would violate his principles of treatment.

“Cheaper than beer”

More than three years of conflict in Myanmar, combined with the easy availability of drugs, have created a “perfect storm”, Mr Edward Blakely, Dare’s director, told AFP.

“We have two big problems: the trauma of people who fled their homes and witnessed the murder of their relatives, as well as abundant supplies of drugs and a sense of hopelessness,” he said.

The junta, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, is battling numerous armed groups opposing its rule across the country.

In addition to deaths and displacement, the conflict has also led to a breakdown in law enforcement, allowing drug gangs to ramp up production.

The Golden Triangle region, where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, has long been a hub for the illegal drug trade.

But the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report this year that methamphetamine production has “increased significantly”, causing wholesale prices for the crystalline form of the drug to fall from more than US$10,000 (S$13,245) per tonne in 2019 up to 4,000 US dollars per ton. in 2023.

On the streets and in the camps, you can buy a yaba tablet, a potent mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine, for small change.

“At the moment they are so cheap that it is really easy for people to buy drugs,” Mr Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC deputy representative for South-East Asia and the Pacific, told AFP.

“It’s now cheaper to buy a yaba tablet than to buy beer in most parts of the Mekong.”

Drug-funded groups

The displaced persons camps are located in Myanmar’s border areas, which are largely controlled by ethnic minority armed groups, many of whom finance their activities through drug production and trafficking.

One senior anti-narcotics police official in Myanmar told AFP that the fighting had opened up many new drug trafficking routes across the country.

“We face many difficulties in fighting the drug trade,” the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

“The problem is serious because there are many armed groups involved.”

The costs fall on those most affected, and consultant Mareep told AFP: “There is no price that compares to being drug-free.” AFP