Laos has vowed to be drug free by 2015. But the Somsanga ‘treatment centre’ offers a glimpse into a world of abuse, beatings and suicide.
Today’s Laos has a communist government that institutes free market reforms and advertises itself as a haven for backpacking tourists. It recently opened its own stock market. For many Americans, especially, Laos still evokes images of the ‘secret war’ fought on the sidelines of the Vietnam war. But even those familiar with modern Laos may not know much about another secret war, this time on the sidelines of the international war on drugs. In a strange realignment of forces, the United States is very much involved, this time on the same side as the government party it once fought against.
