Village that said no to narcotics reaping rewards
Print Edition
ONCE overshadowed by drug abuse, crime and poverty, Shangliche, a small village populated by the Hani ethnic group on the border of Myanmar and southwest China’s Yunnan Province, is now a pleasant community of sugarcane farmers.
Two years ago, Shangliche, with a population of only 200, was a major headache for the narcotics police of nearby Pu’er. About half its population were drug addicts and 90 percent were involved with drug production or trafficking.
“Back then, no villagers left valuables unattended. Even piglets and grain, once left out in the yard, would be stolen to trade for drugs,” said Huang Yongsheng, head of the village.
“In Shangliche and neighboring villages, drugs were easy and cheap to come by and awareness was weak,” said Ma Shuliang, deputy director of Pu’er police. Law enforcement also left a lot to be desired.
Pu’er has 4,000 registered addicts, 80 percent of whom live in border villages like Shangliche. Ma believes community anti-drug pacts, when supported by strong leaders like Huang Yongsheng, selected specifically to lead rural anti-drug campaigns, have helped solve the problem.
Anti-drug pacts require communities to work together and cannot function without widespread cooperation and agreement. That means weekly urine tests for all previously known drug users.
“Migrant workers and visiting friends also have to take tests,” Huang said.
Huang organizes four-man patrols for routine inspections and to administer the tests.
According to the pact, those who test positive can face fines of up to 1,500 yuan (US$230), roughly equal to a villager’s monthly earnings, and are excluded from state insurance packages. The pact bans “clean” villagers from helping users with their crops and from making contributions to their funerals or weddings.
“Cutting a truckload of sugarcane takes 30 workers a full day. No one can do it alone. If someone fails a urine test, no one is allowed to help with his harvest,” Huang said.
Villager Zhong Shanggong used to believe that small amounts of recreational drugs posed no problem.
“Now the pact has banned it all, and ended the drug culture,” he said.
The pact has discouraged abuse and brought villagers together, said Wang Yi, deputy secretary of the political and legal committee of Pu’er.
For the past 18 months, no one in Shangliche has tested positive and their income last year was double that of 2012.
Four villages with similar practices have reduced their numbers of users by 93 percent, said Jiang Kaiming, head of Mengbin village.
“The anti-drug pact is a creative and effective practice that creates a strong anti-narco culture,” said Ma Shuliang.
Yunnan is plagued by rampant use of narcotics. Statistics released last June showed that the amount of heroin and methamphetamine seized by Yunnan police accounted for about 80 and 70 percent of the country’s total respectively. It had the fifth-largest number of registered drug users among all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
In addition, the province, along with Sichuan and Guangdong, is the main domestic source of drugs.
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