Being one of the few Hmong people educated in the French colonial school system,Touby Lyfoung was elected as head ("tasseng") of the Nong Het sub-district in Xiangkhoang Province in 1939. The next year, as the only Hmong member of the Opium Purchasing Board, he oversaw the institution of a new tax that was payable in opium for those farmers who were too poor to pay in cash. At the time, many Hmong, like other ethnic minorities in the region, cultivated poppies and sold the extracted opium as a cash crop. The French colonial authorities relied on taxes from the opium trade to fund infrastructure projects and draw revenue from the colonies. Cut-off from their most abundant supply of opium in Afghanistan (due to conflicts associated with World War II), the French looked with favor upon Lyfoung for helping to improve the output of Laos.