Illicit drug use among young people in large towns in Laos is continuing to rise, with the country acting as a transit point for illegal drugs produced in neighbouring countries.
This year alone 6,600 people have checked into the country's nine drug treatment and rehabilitation centres.
About half of the villages nationwide have been declared ‘drug-free' but only 38 percent of secondary schools have achieved drug-free status.
At the eighth High Level Illicit Drug Working Group Meeting, held this week in Vientiane, Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision (LCDC) Acting Chairman, Mr Kou Chansina, said more information needed to be spread among young people about the dangers of drug use.
“We need to extend the National Drug Control Master Plan (NDCMP) 2009-2013 to the end of 2015 to broaden the dangers-of-drug campaign if we want to reduce drug use,” he said.
The NDCMP has brought about widespread campaigns on the risks of using drugs that are estimated to have reached about 245,000 people.
Mr Kou said counter-narcotics police dealt with 1,303 drug cases in Laos last year and arrested 1,954 people, including 40 foreigners.
Officers seized more than 13.8 million amphetamine tablets, 5,696 tonnes of cannabis, 1,494kg of opium and 54.8kg of heroin.
In just two months of this year, China, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar collaborated on drug busts in the Mekong River region, arresting 2,543 people.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Laos is facing two main drug problems: a resurgence in opium poppy cultivation and an increase in amphetamine production, trafficking and use.
Mr Kou said opium poppy cultivation in remote northern areas was found to be decreasing compared to reports received last year.
In 1998 almost 27,000ha of opium poppies were under cultivation, which dropped to just 1,500ha in 2006.
By 2008 it was estimated the area under cultivation was 1,600ha, however estimated sizes slowly increased to 1,900ha in 2009, 3,000ha in 2010, 4,100ha in 2011 and 6,800ha in 2012.
Increasing drug production, trafficking and abuse threatens to undermine efforts to eliminate poverty, achieve the Millennium Development Goals and reach targets set out in the seventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan.
