Title: Opium Reduction Programs and Gender in Northern LaosSubmitted by: Paul T. Cohen and Chris Lyttleton, Macquarie University, AustraliaThis paper is concerned with an opium reduction project recently introduced in the district of Muang Sing (northern Laos) by a major foreign aid organization with the support of a Lao government drug control agency. The project is concentrated on the highland Akha people who comprise the majority population of the district. Our paper will first deal with the role of opium in Akha communities in this district: opium cultivation, rates of addiction (which are particularly high), the ratio of male to female addicts, and general and specific causes of addiction. We also examine recent changes in drug legislation in Lao PDR that have accorded opium reduction projects more urgency and we present an overview of the principles and methods of a particular opium detoxification program. Our paper focuses on the issue of gender inequality and the implications this has for detoxification and relapse. Following a general discussion of gender inequality in Akha society we assess the burden (especially economic) of opium addiction for women, in communities in which male addicts far outnumber female. We then discuss female strategies for controlling their addict husbands within the limitations of a male-dominated society. We argue that this particular opium detoxification program has the potential, through a discourse of 'shame', to create a pariah group of relapsed addicts. However, we also tentatively conclude that this same discourse may, more positively, empower women to more effectively censure addict husbands. Return to Abstracts menuCarol Burnett Phone: 61 - 3 - 9349 1899 Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
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