"Before the coup, I was just an ordinary farmer," says Aung Hla, one of many in Myanmar who have turned to opium production in the wake of the 2021 seizure of power by the junta. The 35-year-old used to farm rice before he was forced from his land by fighting, a common experience across the war-battered country. Like many displaced farmers, Hla has found poppies to be a more reliable source of income than other agricultural products, but says he wouldn't be cultivating opium - the key ingredient in heroin - if he had "any other choice."
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00:30We have been living here for a long time, but we have not been able to build a house.
00:46We have been living here for a long time, but we have not been able to build a house.
00:52We have a lot of our own trees,
00:55and we will use them to make our own food.
01:00We will use them to make our own food.
01:06In our village, we don't have a lot of trees,
01:09so we have to cut down some.
01:11We don't have a lot of trees.
01:12But we have a lot of food.
01:14We have a lot of trees,
01:16so we have to cut down some.
01:18I don't want to go back to my village.
01:24I don't want to go back to my village.
01:48There are two main reasons why we are here.
02:06We are very poor. We don't have money to buy food.
02:10We don't have any bread or water to eat.
02:14We don't have anything.
02:16We are poor.
02:18We don't have any food to eat.
02:21We have no money.
02:36It's a good thing that we're here, because if we weren't, we wouldn't be able to do
03:00this.
03:01But the government and government officials are not happy with my decision.
03:08I've been working at the farm since 1997.
03:13I've been working at the farm since 1997.
03:16I have to work to feed my family.
03:19I have to work to feed my family.
03:21I'm not happy with my decision.
03:31you