Oh yes, you will read folklore about the poppies, those beautiful flowers with deadly consequences. You'll learn how the hill tribe people of the Golden Triangle were introduced to the poppies as a major cash crop by the Chinese, British, and French in their attempt to earn a quick buck using cheap labor. You'll be given a thorough description of exactly how (and with which tools) and when to cut, dry, and scrape the poppies to extract the black tar. Then you'll learn how prepare it, weigh it, and package it for sale. You'll also see and read a detailed explanation of how to smoke opium, complete with a life-sized diorama of a man in a shack, assuming the opium-smoking position lying on mat, properly holding the pipe, and resting his head on the pillow (and I will admit that as a life-long drug-phobic, I was startled when I walked by because it looked like the guy could have been alive and in an opium haze--and quite frankly, it wouldn't have surprised me if there had been a real person getting high in there).
Once you feel confident in your opium harvesting techniques, you'll wander through a hall of paraphernalia (which were really cool-looking) from opium pipes (carved out anything from teak to ivory), opium pillows (which in most cases were beautifully and intricately carved out of stone), and opium weights (which, if I didn't know what they were, I would think were really cool-looking toys/figurines).
After completing your walk through that area, you'll be confronted with the hard truth about the banning of growing opium. Yes, the hill tribes suffered. No, they didn't want to comply. Yes, the Thai government, along with the help of the US DEA, did everything they could to re-educate the hill tribe people and give them alternative crops. No, the hill tribes still aren't happy that they can't grow opium because coffee and tea simply don't yield the same kind of profits. And why was their cash crop taken away? Because, as if opium isn't bad enough (aside from the fact that it does make the best painkiller available, and thus is legally grown in India for that sole purpose), opium can be manufactured into other more potent and easier to smuggle street drugs...like heroin. And it seems that the Golden Triangle (being the area where Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos intersect) was (until Afghanistan knocked them out of the #1 spot a couple years ago) the world's largest illegal opium producing area (and the world's center for heroin smuggling).
The next part of the museum tour takes you into a room where you learn a little about the science behind creating drugs (aside from straight opium) out of the base product. You know, things like morphine, heroin, methadone, and oxycontin. They go so far as to list out the exact recipe and procedure for making heroin. Let me just repeat that. There was an enormous poster listing, not only the necessary ingredients, but the step-by-step process of making heroin. Ummm...did the Opium Museum use the crystal-meth-how-to internet sites as their resource for what information is appropriate for the general public (and did I mention that photography and journaling was totally allowed inside there)? Personally, I felt a little weird being the holder of such knowledge, and I wasn't the only one.
My Canadian friend looked over at me as we were reading the poster, and he asked, "Do you find it strange...?"
And I didn't hesitate to complete his sentence, "That we just learned how to make drugs?"
"Yeah. Should that be in a museum?"
"Not sure. It's interesting...but kinda creepy."
"And maybe a little unnecessary and...oh, I don't know, too in-depth?" The Canadian added.
I agreed, then directed my eyes to the next part of my opium education.
Right next to the heroin recipe was....(drum roll please)....the biography and horrors of the notorious Burmese drug lord, Khun Sa, who controlled the heroin trade for close to 50 years. Reading that made me feel a little better about the museum because it did showcase the kind of dangerous underworld (complete with paid militias and constant warfare) that the illegal drug trade forced upon the region (which was in stark contrast to the first part of the museum which seemed to acknowledge the negative aspects of opium use, but overshadowed those negatives with the positive economic outlook provided by the sale of it).
Looking to learn more (as if this wasn't enough)? Well, that's all you're going to get, because the next part of the museum contained a room full of photos of giant Mekong catfish (and they are gi-normous), and long-necked women.
But never fear, no museum exit is complete without forcing you to go through the gift shop, and in this gift shop you can purchase all the opium paraphernalia that you could possibly want. Seriously. And if you didn't get EVERYTHING you needed, fear not. There's a pharmacy next door.
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