“I started growing opium nearby my village, because we were all very poor,” says a man in his 40s, who wants to remain anonymous. He lives in Tonzang, a small town of around 6,000 inhabitants high above the clouds in the mountains of northern Chin state, in Myanmar.
It’s one of the country’s poorest and most underdeveloped regions.
“There are no jobs there that can give you a sustainable income. Many families around us were already growing it and making money from it, so I decided to start too,” he says.
Just a few years ago, he was one of an increasing number of opium farmers in Chin state who grow opium for a living. But today, he works as a carpenter.
