The drugs that wreak havoc in the highlands

[geovalin]

Phak Seangly and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

 

As substance abuse increases nationally, Jarai villagers in the once-remote province of Ratanakkiri grapple with the arrival of a drug they cannot name – though they know it is harming their youth

 

At first glance, Saom Trork Chas village in Ratanakkiri seems little more than a simple rural community: the sound of children chanting their lessons drifts across a dusty schoolyard; Jarai women carry traditional baskets on their way to and from market; and, between the stilted homes, pigs waddle by.

 

But this is a place wrestling with a significant drug abuse problem, says 42-year-old community organiser Sal Thi. He first noticed villagers using drugs in 2012. Since then, he says, it has become prevalent among men and boys. Saom Trork Chas lies more than an hour’s drive from the provincial capital, Banlung, and 15 minutes off the main road. But that relative isolation has not protected it from a drug’s scourge and the social ills that go with it, says Thi.

 

LONG AND COMPLETE ARTICLE read more http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/drugs-wreak-havoc-highlands

[212Roger]

I find it alluring in the sense that no one has "named" it yet.  I bet, on the soi, the users have a name for it.

[swanny321]

  'High' lands...teehee!