View source for News:2002-05-18/Report/koh-kongs-wild-west-era-ending-as-new-thai-bridge-opens-province-was-production-zone-for-asias-finest-quality

{{NewsItem
|date=2002-05-18
|category=Report
|title=Koh Kong's "Wild West" era ending as new Thai bridge opens; province was production zone for "Asia's finest quality marijuana"
|summary=Reuters reported that Koh Kong province, once known as Cambodia's "Wild West," was transitioning away from its criminal economy following the opening of a new bridge to Thailand's Trat province. Until the late 1990s, Koh Kong was "a production zone for some of Asia's finest quality marijuana, grown in staggering quantities," alongside illegal logging and human trafficking. Drug lords had given farmers "tools, seeds and fertilizer to grow cannabis in big jungle plantations" and bought back harvests. Roads had been cut in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge, leaving the 130,000-population province virtually isolated and accessible only by boat, making it "easy prey for the gangsters." Anti-logging campaigns and drug crackdowns in recent years had begun to steer the economy away from the black market, but experts feared the new road infrastructure could benefit criminal syndicates.
|source=https://www.dawn.com/news/34922/cambodia-s-wild-west
|country=Cambodia
|admin1=Koh Kong
|growing_region=Cardamom Mountains
}}