2017023 Shan state Workers harvesting opium in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent
By Vilhelm Stokstad – Myanmar is the second largest producer of opium in the world, after Afghanistan, and one of the main producers of Methamphetamine. Farmers and workers in the the mountains of Shan State are growing poppy as a way to send their children to school. Others are using opium to get rid of the pain after a long hard working day. In Kachin State, the christian organization Pat Jasan is arresting junkies on the streets, giving them the choice of prison or rehabilitation. Their methods are cruel, locking drug users in wooden cages, and surrounding their rehabilitation centers with barbed wire.
In Yangon, the availability of Methamphetamine and cheap Heroin have led to a drug epidemic. An anonymous drug user tells us about prisons overflowing with drugs to control the prisoners and youngsters using Meth as recreation. The majority of the drugs are exported though, to larger markets in China and Thailand, through rebel groups in the border regions of Myanmar.
This area, known as the Golden Triangle, is still a very active area of trade.
2017023 Shan state
Workers harvesting opium in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170223 Shan state
Workers and farmers on their way back to the village after a days work in the poppy fields in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170222 Shan state
The Poppy pods are lightly scratched with a tool made of bamboo and razors. The opium sips out and are left on the pod to dry for a day before it´s harvested and collected. Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170222 Shan state
Freshly harvested opium in a village in Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170222 Shan state
A village chief smokes fresh opium pasted on a locally produced cigarr in Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170223 Shan state
Workers and farmers takes a rest on top a mountain on their way to the poppy fields in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent2017023 Shan state
Workers in a poppy filed in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170223 Shan state
Workers and farmers on their way back to the village after a days work in the poppy fields in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170224 Shan state
A opium farmer takes a smoke in the morning in his poppy filed deep in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
He owns the village´s largest field and support his while family and parents on the income of around $ 1000 dollars per season.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170223 Shan state
Poppy pods on a mountain side overlooking a village in the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170222 Shan state
Children in the streets of a opium producing village in Shan State, Myanmar. Most farmers and workers here say they would rather grow something else than poppy, but that it is the only way for them to send the kids to school.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170224 Shan State
In a neighboring village to the opium farmers the usage of opium is widespread. An active user demonstrates his pipe, lying on the floor lighting it over a small candle. Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170225 Shan State
A 20 year old opium addict. His mother cries and asks for help. He wants to leave the village and go work somewhere else, where he can be free of the drug. So far he has not been able to afford it. Many people have trouble getting treatment here, in a village in Shan State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170226 Myitkyina
Clients play Chinlone, a popular local sport, at a Catholic drug rehabilitation center in Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170226 Myitkyina
Movie night at a drug rehabilitation center in Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170227 Myitkyina
The 25 year old drug user has completed his first week of rehabilitation locked up in a wooden cage in one of Pat Ja Sans Drug rehabilitation centers in Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar.
He has a wife and child waiting for him at home. He was arrested by the Baptist run organisation and put in a rehabilitation center.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170227 Myitkyina
Clients in the yard at a Pat Jasan drug rehabilitation center in Myitkyina, Kachin state, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170227 Myitkyina
A client runs through an alley with barbed wire fencing at a Pat Jasan drug rehabilitation center in Myitkyina, Kachin state, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170228 Yangon
A taxi drives through the night in Yangon, Myanmar,
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170301 Yangon
A man addicted to both heroin and meth starting to prepare his afternoon fix in his home in Yangon, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent20170301 Yangon
A man addicted to both heroin and methamphetamine smoking his afternoon fix of meth in his home in Yangon, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent
