China Exclusive: Anti-drug pacts resurrects China's border villages

Once overshadowed by drug abuse, crime and poverty, Shangliche, a small village populated by the Hani ethnic group on the border of Myanmar and Yunnan Province, is now a pleasant community of sugarcane farmers.

Two years ago, Shangliche, with a population of only 200, was a major headache for the narcotics police of nearby Pu'er. About half its population were drug addicts and 90 percent were involved with drug production or trafficking.

"Back then, no villagers left valuables unattended. Even piglets and grain, once left out in the yard, would be stolen to trade for drugs," said Huang Yongsheng, head of the village since 2013.

"In Shangliche and neighboring villages, drugs were easy and cheap to come by and awareness was weak," said Ma Shuliang, deputy director of Pu'er police. Law enforcement also left a lot to be desired.

Pu'er has 4,000 registered addicts, 80 percent of whom live in border villages like Shangliche. Ma believes community anti-drug pacts, when supported by strong leaders like Huang Yongsheng, selected specifically to lead rural anti-drug campaigns, have helped dispell the problem.

Anti-drug pacts require the whole community to work together to free their hometowns from the scourge of narcotics and cannot function without widespread cooperation and agreement from villagers. The agreements mean weekly urine tests for all previously known drug users.

"Migrant workers, visiting friends and outsiders also have to take urine tests," said Huang.

Huang organizes four-man patrols for routine inspections and to administer the tests. According to the pact, those who test positive can face fines of up to 1,500 yuan (about 230 U.S. dollars), roughly equal to a villager's monthly earnings, and are excluded from state insurance packages. The pact bans "clean" villagers from helping users with their crops and from making cash contributions to their funerals or weddings.

"Cutting a truckload of sugarcane takes 30 workers a full day. No one can do it alone. If someone fails a urine test, no one is allowed to help with his harvest," said Huang.

Villager Zhong Shanggong used to believe that small amounts of recreational drugs posed no problem. "Now the pact has banned it all, and ended the drug culture," he said.

The pact has discouraged abuse and brought villagers together, said Wang Yi, deputy secretary of the political and legal committee of Pu'er.

For the past year and half, no villagers in Shangliche have tested positive and their income in 2015 was double that of 2012. Four neighboring villages with similar practices have reduced their numbers of users by 93 percent, according to Jiang Kaiming, head of Mengbin village.

"The anti-drug pact is a creative and effective practice that creates a strong anti-narco culture. It is a successful practice other rural villages should learn from," said Ma Shuliang.

Yunnan is plagued by rampant use of narcotics. Official statistics released in June, 2015 showed that the amount of heroin and methamphetamine seized by the Yunnan police accounts for around 80 percent and 70 percent of the country's total respectively. It has the fifth

largest number of registered drug users among all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

In addition, the province, along with Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, is the main domestic source of drugs. Endit