The United Nations office on Drugs and Crime just released volume just released a photo essay about the lives of people touched by the drug trade in the so-called Golden Triangle of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. The project is produced by the acclaimed photo-journalist Alessandro Scotti, who is a UNODC Goodwill Ambassador.

From the UN News Center

The second volume of the photojournalism book "De Narcoticis" is produced by award-winning photographer, journalist and UNODC Goodwill Ambassador, Alessandro Scotti.

The project "gives a face" to a problem that is often depicted through data and numbers, and focuses on a range of actors, including law enforcement officers, traffickers, plantation workers and addicts, notes Mr. Scotti.

"It's an underworld which has been examined closely enough to give us plenty of figures and statistics, but which is less known for its personal stories," he says.

"The people involved in trafficking have only a very partial perception of the overall phenomenon, and yet their lives are powerfully affected by it. They are simple people with a limited perception of the impact of their actions.

"Most are in any case tied to the 'job' for their very survival; desperate people with otherwise limited life chances or opportunities," he says.

UPDATE: The embed does not seem to be working at the moment. Direct link here.