Speeding Up the Economy: The Role of Methamphetamines in the Southeast Asian Boom

Like many teenagers around the world, Ngo started using drugs after being encouraged by his friends. But what separates his experiences in Cambodia from that of a teenager in many other countries is that his friends didn’t promise him a “good time” if he got high with them; rather, they promised that it would help him turn a profit.

Much has been written about the deeply concerning rise of drug use in Southeast Asia, particularly of methamphetamines. When talking about this problem, NGOs and news media have generally focused on the same background issues that lead to drug abuse and addiction in the West, namely poverty, unemployment, and social decay.

While these are certainly factors in Southeast Asia as well, one overlooked aspect is that another factor pushing the region’s youth into methamphetamine use is not poverty, but the opposite: the breakneck speed of the economic boom, where the skyscrapers erupting out of the ground like rice shoots can often cast a long shadow over the people erecting them.

Underneath the international acclaim for the continually rising economic metrics of Southeast Asia, there is a dark side to what the World Economic Forum called “The Dawn of the Asian Century.”

Drugs “are necessary for the work,” said Ngo, who did not give his family name. In a recent interview, the 22-year-old told The Diplomat that he has been working as a manual laborer since he was 15, when he got a job on a construction site.

He said that when he first came to the capital, Phnom Penh, he found that all of his new coworkers at an aluminum works were smoking methamphetamines in a crystallized form known as “ice.” They told him that it would help him get through the long days.

The workshop provided made-to-order aluminum furniture for the city’s restaurants and hotels. In a country where the hospitality sector is estimated to have an astounding 13 percent yearly growth rate, these types of facilities have constant demand. Ngo was assembling furniture for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“When I took it, I didn’t know tiredness,” he said of the drugs.

Pi, a 20-year-old laborer on the same street who also did not want to give his family name, reported taking amphetamines in order to deal with the body pains he gets from his job as a truck loader. He told The Diplomat that he carries hundreds of 20-kilogram cases of beer per day. The beer industry in Cambodia is also experiencing a boom, with an estimated 9 percent yearly growth rate.