Poison Plantation
Awareness lacking among poppy growers
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 20, 2010 -

It's so saddening to realize that there are still many people in Manipur who don't seem to care about all these campaigns being launched by various organizations against drugs and alcohol in Manipur.

The reports along with photographs that appeared in the Imphal based newspapers on Tuesday that poppy plants are being grown on a vast strip of land in the Nongmai ching hills, just about 7/8 km east of Imphal city, are shocking.

As everyone knows, the sap of the unripe seed capsules of the poppy or opium poppy plant is the source of opium and heroin, also known as No. 4. Opium and heroin are very costly drugs, and also very addictive and dangerous to human health and mind.

The destructive effects of these drugs need not be elaborated here as the Manipuri society is already well aware of them. However, it may be mentioned here that opium and heroin are the kind of drugs that some people use as the most effective weapon to destroy enemies.

If you want to destroy your enemy slowly without you having to fight him physically, you give him the drugs discreetly, make him addicted to it, and see how he is turned into a living dead-a zombic, and finishes his own life. Moreover, dealing in heroin is a lucrative business.

The white powder drug is reported to be manufactured in some South East Asian countries like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and recently Thailand. The so-called Golden Triangle comprising the first three SE Asian countries is often quoted as being the great origin of heroin.

Illegal Poppy cultivation at Nongmaiching before being destroyed by NAB officials on Monday, January 18 Pix: TSE

The drug is smuggled into Manipur by unscrupulous people who want to make huge profits at the cost of many youths' lives. Rumours were abound some years ago that certain well-known figures in Manipur had made a lot of money by dealing in heroin, but no one could verify the rumours. Yet a former minister was reportedly arrested along with one kg packet of heroin powder from a hotel room in Guwahati a few years back.

Because of the huge amount of money that drugs like cocaine and heroin fetches at the international markets, powerful underworld mafias are involved in drug smuggling. Drug money is circulated in elections in various countries across the globe. Some armed rebel groups in some Latin American and Asian countries use drugs as a great source of funds.

In areas of Afghanistan where the Talibans call the shots, poppy plants are so widely grown as the main source of income to fund their fundamentalist movement. Likewise, in some South East Asian countries too, the poppy plantation is considered as the great source of income.

Till a few years ago, poppy plants were quite alien to the soil of Manipur, but not any more. Poppy plants are grown in vast areas of interior parts of Chandel, Churachandpur, Senapati and Ukhrul districts.

Despite being banned, it is common to see ganja or Marijuana plants grown widely in almost every district of the state. But now, some people in the hill districts are turning their attention to growing poppy plants for obvious reasons.

The seed capsules of the poppy, from which juice makes opium and heroin, fetch more price value. But this new trend of growing poppy is more dangerous than growing marijuana.

Just last month, the All Manipur Anti Drug Association (AMADA) had brought out a new Shumang Lila entitled Opium War, a story based on the Opium War of China,(1839-1842 and 1856), played by the Peace Maker Artistes' Association. The Shumang Lila shows how the people of China were stupefied by opium deliberately pumped in by the then British colonialists as a strategy to colonise China.

At the same time, AMADA had found that opium poppy plants were being grown and cultivated in the Nongmaiching hill located partly in Imphal East district and Senapati district.

Growing poppy, which in fact is poison plant, can't be easily waved away as a way of earning livelihood for the villagers concerned. There are many other alternative crops and horticultural plants that can be grown to earn livelihood. No excuse can be accepted for growing poison plants.

The authorities mustn't allow poppy plantation anywhere on the soil of Manipur. However, it will be far better if the villagers concerned can be brought to understanding the destructive implications of growing opium poppy in a friendly manner.

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