The Hmong are a hilltribe of southeast Asia, perhaps most famous for supporting the US in Vietnam against communist forces there and in neighbouring Laos.

By some reckonings, up to 30% of the remaining Hmong are also opium addicts.

This sad state of affairs really stems from a rather sad history for these people. As early as the 19th century, there are records of Hmong opium famers being displaced by Chinese incursions. Their involvement with the crop as producers goes back some time, but is also concurrent with growing use among their people of the drug.

These days, many Hmong farmers are still involved in the production of opium which is marketed in Thailand as their main cash-crop. In fact a “reformed” Hmong opium farmer was awarded the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s “Thai Model Farmer” award in 2005.

Such is indicative of official efforts to get Hmong farmers to “go legit.” After 1972 there was actually a Crop Replacement and Community Development project of the United Nations Program for Drug Abuse Control (UNPDAC) to attempt to eliminate the poppy crop in the Thailand highlands - of course the project wasn’t able to replace the income of poor poppy famers and was basically a failure. While some more recent efforts have reduced the crop, there is still a significant production among the Hmong.

As in many opium producing areas, the price of opium is simply so far above other cash crops that the economics of producing it is a no-brainer for a subsistence farmer. Combined with the pitiful cash returns of other crops, the chances of getting many Hmong to switch their crop is quite low.

The effects of addiction on the Hmong population however, are quite stark. Famlies of addicts are often forced into further poverty with addicts being unfit for manual labour. Life expectancy is also severely reduced.

This situation is not particularly unique - in fact there is a parrellel in Afghanistan (among other places), yet the proud history of the Hmong as soldiers, western allies and anti-communists is sadly buried beneath their ongoing issues with opium.