Bangladesh versus Yaba

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thousands of Bangladeshi addicts are hooked on Yaba - a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine. It's a powerful drug that gives big bangs for small bucks. The Yaba epidemic has ripped through the population of Bangladesh, urban and rural, poor, middle-class and rich. This is a drug that's manufactured in industrial quantities in the jungles of neighbouring Myanmar. As the economy of Bangladesh has boomed, drug lords have worked to create new markets for their product. And the Rohingya crisis - when nearly a million fled Myanmar for Bangladesh - has created further opportunities for the traffickers, as desperate refugees have been employed as drug mules. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, declared a 'war on drugs' last May. Thousands have been arrested. But critics see a disturbing trend - hundreds of suspected Yaba dealers have been killed by law enforcement.

Presenter / producer: Linda Pressly with Morshed Ali Khan

(Image: Yaba pills being held by a drug-user. Credit: Ye Aung THU / AFP)

Transcript

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0:00.0	They call it Baba here in Bangladesh. In Thai it's known as Yaba, the Crazy Medicine.
0:07.0	And in this podcast from assignment, we're going to take you on a journey to explore the impact of what's been called one of the most harmful
0:14.7	psychoactive drugs on the illicit market. So let me introduce you first to
0:19.2	Mocha Ali Khan, a veteran Manglodesh journalist who you're going to hear a lot from in this
0:24.0	podcast. Having worked with you for a few days I discovered that it is so extensive
0:30.9	this Yabba all around the country you find it and I'm sure this is one of the
0:35.9	worst enemies of the country, of the nation.
0:39.7	One of the worst enemies of the nation, says Morshedhed so stay tuned and if you like what you hear do rate us with your
0:46.6	podcast provider or indeed write a review for us here we go. I was awake in for seven days, eight days, nine days or even ten days.
0:59.6	Ten days awake?
1:00.9	I'm taking the bus in the morning in the afternoon and again in
1:05.1	evening and late at night and working all night and not going to bed.
1:11.4	Mohammed was a drug addict.
1:13.0	Yabba, methamphetamine cut with caffeine, is one of the most harmful psychoactive substances on the illicit market.
1:20.0	In Bangladesh, these red or vivid pink tablets are cheaper than heroin and they're everywhere.
1:27.0	After he stayed up for so long, Mohamed crashed.
1:31.0	I got a blackout and I totally went down.
1:35.0	After two days or three days, I get again awakened.
1:38.0	So you sleep for two or three days?
1:40.0	Two to three days, yeah.
1:41.0	Waking up and taking my foods and going to bed again. Or if I have any
1:45.6	ear bus with me, then I'm taking it again. If a single pill is left to you, you will
	...

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