Vietnamese Family Values

(Lao Cai Province, Vietnam) Authorities regularly arrest women for dealing in illegal narcotics in the mountainous Lao Cai Province, but they can't get them into jail.

To avoid going to jail, many female offenders have children without stopping and nobody can touch them.

Though there are no official statistics about this subject of female offenders, the number is quite large. In Lao Cai province, there are around 50 women of this kind, all of who are drug traders.

The most 'famous' case is Nguyen Thi Thoan, a primary teacher in Lao Cai province, who publicly deals drugs but police can't arrest her because she is always pregnant. Every time police invite doctors to examine Thoan, she is always pregnant at around 4-5 months and police, thus, must wait for three years. But when her verdict comes into effect, Thoan continues to be pregnant. This woman has stated: "If you arrest me, I'll have more babies."

Lai Chau province has Do Thi Bao, a drug criminal who is also a 'child delivery machine'. Notably, though she is not married she continuously has babies.


Nguyen Thi Thoan and Do Thi Bao
In HCM City, there is also a female drug trader who has delivered 7-8 children to avoid being arrested.

The difficulty arises because the Vietnamese Penal Code has a humanity policy where pregnant women and those with infants can't be put in prison.

The law is absolutely terrible. Not only are current drug offenders not punished but the policy guarantees that the next generation will be populated with people who grew up in the drug trade.