The 10-km section of National Highway 1A in
Ho Chi Minh City has long been a destination of addicts, many of them truck
drivers commuting on the road, when they fall in their regular fits of drug
use.
It is
likened as the ‘heaven of drugs’, stretching from the An Suong intersection to
Ga intersection in District 12, because local police have failed to remove the
market in recent years, and also to conduct a survey about the link between
reckless driving by drivers in their bouts of addiction and the road toll on
the section.
In
reality, thousands of addicts from distant localities stop somewhere along the
road section to get drugs from vendors every day.
Penetrating ‘the market’
On a
day late last month, an addict named Xoan from the neighboring province of Binh
Duong stopped by the An Suong intersection. When he saw a man riding an
out-of-date Honda motorbike close behind, Xoan made a ‘signal’ by nodding.
The man
curtly asked, “Half or a full box?” ‘Box’ here refers to the weight of drugs
that can be consumed two to six times depending on its pure quality. After
that, Xoan was taken by the man deep into a narrow alley running from the
highway to a deserted piece of land.
He
switched off the bike and rolled up Xoan’s sleeve to ensure that the client was
not a ‘cheo’ – a slang word drugs sellers use to refer to cops. After seeing
numerous traces of injection left on the veins of Xoan’s hands, he pulled out a
Jet cigarette packet full of drugs.
The
seller is Hung, an addict and seller in the area. Every night, he rides his
bike to District 8 to get ‘the goods’ and distributes them in stores at An
Suong. Many years ago, Hung publicly sold drugs to buyers on the pavement of
the highway before local police conducted a raid, after which he withdrew into
the alleys.
To
escape police tracking, drug dealers ‘invented’ a kind of ‘throwing sale’.
After receiving signals from clients such as a nod or a scratch on the hand or
head, Hung comes and tells his client a place to meet and takes money.
He then
rushes to the site, throws down the pack of drugs, and leaves.
This
method is meant to help dealers avoid being caught red handed by police.
At the
An Suong ‘market’, a box is priced at VND3.5 million (US$168), and half a box
VND1.9 million ($91). If someone doesn’t have much money, an addict can buy a
dose from VND80,000 – 120,000 ($3.8 – 5.7), which is enough for injecting once.
Another
drug seller, Quang, said many dealers cling to the area but they only give ‘the
goods’ to the right men -- or those who make the right signal. Strangers will
never be able to get drugs there.
A drug tycoon
All
addicts and retailers in the An Suong area know Minh ‘ke’ -- a tycoon. He is 30
years old and permanently resides in Dong Lan Hamlet in Ba Diem Commune of the
city’s Hoc Mon District. He is a bearded man and has two big tatoos on his hand
and back, and usually drives a Honda Dream motorbike.
He is a
favorite contact of addicts as his products are of good quality. An addict said
a small box from Minh ‘ke’ worth 200,000 dongs ($9.6) is enough for six doses,
while a similar amount sold by others is good for only two.
“With
me, don’t worry about my products running out. I can give you as many you ask,
with just the right amount of money,” said Minh ‘ke’.
A
policeman in Ba Diem Commune, one of four localities bordering the An Suong
intersection, revealed that drug sellers in the area even hide heroine in beverage-drinking
straws and scatter them around at their appointed sites.
Needles
for drug injections are numerous in local alleys, he admitted, adding that
local police have made many raids, but ‘the market’ does exist.
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