Myanmar throws in the towel on opium fight

[waltky]

Gotta get the crop in first...

Myanmar delays policy target amid narcotics boom
Tue, May 07, 2013 - Myanmar has delayed by five years its deadline to eliminate drug production within its borders, a senior official said yesterday, as the impoverished nation struggles to stem a growing narcotics crisis.

Authorities are “very concerned” about a rebound in poppy cultivation over the past six years in Myanmar, the world’s second-largest opium producer, while amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are also surging, deputy police chief Zaw Win said. Due to “threats posed by ATS” and to achieve a reduction in poppy cultivation, Myanmar’s narcotic control board has “extended its drug elimination to 2019,” he said at the opening of six nation talks in Yangon. The previous target was next year. He added that Myanmar’s authorities were “doing our best” to help stem the flow of drugs in the region.

Officials from China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam have gathered in Myanmar for days of talks on a worsening drugs crisis, which the UN has warned poses a threat to public security. A minister-level meeting in Naypyidaw on Thursday is expected to produce a regional declaration on the issue. Zaw Win told delegates that it was “crystal clear that [the] methamphetamine problem is growing rapidly,” adding that “more and more international drug syndicates are becoming involved.” “Illicit drug production and trafficking are closely linked to instability, human security and insurgency at the border areas, which creates serious challenges to the ability of law enforcement agencies,” he said.

The drugs trade is closely linked to Myanmar’s long-running insurgencies in remote areas bordering Thailand, Laos and China — known as the golden triangle — with ethnic minority rebels widely thought to use drug profits to fund operations. As part of its reform drive, Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government has reached tentative peace deals with most major armed ethnic groups.

However, Gary Lewis, regional representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in December last year said the ease of production of methamphetamine in small laboratories, along with distrust between the rebels and authorities meant that some groups could decide to “hedge their bets.” About 5.9 million methamphetamine pills were seized in Myanmar in 2011, almost double the figure for the previous year, the UN said in a report in December last year, although seizures are likely to represent only a fraction of the amount produced.

Myanmar delays policy target amid narcotics boom - Taipei Times

 

[editec]

Drugs is such a huge money maker that it perverts governements.

I don't know why anyone would be surprised that Burma is addicted to drug money, when it is very obvious that our state and local and federal governments here in the USA are likewise addicted to the money generated by drugs and also by the war on drugs.

 

[waltky]

Other Asian-Pacific countries making up for Afghanistan's drop in production...

UN Warns of Record Production of Illicit Drugs in Asia
October 20, 2015 — The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime is calling for reform and greater cooperation among regional law enforcement to combat the production of opiates and amphetamine type stimulants across Asia and the Pacific.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says production and trafficking of illicit drugs, remains at record levels in Asia with up to 10 million users of the drugs as well as prescription stimulants. Speaking at an Asia Pacific conference of national law enforcement agencies, UNODC regional representative Jeremy Douglas said stimulant use such as methamphetamines continued to rise in most countries in Asia and the Pacific. “Clearly the supply is as high, if not higher than it has ever been. So indications from every country attending are that it seems to be getting bigger. Possibly with the exception of heroin, which out of Myanmar seems to be like the production of opium is levelling off, but it is still at high levels,” he said.

A soldier torches a pile of narcotics during a joint destruction ceremony by the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) and Pakistan Coast Guards (PCG) on the outskirts of Karachi​

The UNODC says opiates and amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) produced in clandestine laboratories remain the two major illicit drug threats in Asia and the Pacific. In Asia Pacific the transnational crime economy is worth an estimated $100 billion a year, with $30 billion centered on the illicit drug market. Major transnational criminal syndicates are largely behind production of synthetic type stimulants, especially potent in its crystalline form, known as “ice”. Most methamphetamine laboratories are based in China, where authorities in 2013 shutdown 572 of the illicit operations and where usage continues to rise especially among the young. Other production centers in Asia include Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Thailand Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya called for greater cross border cooperation to support poor farmers drawn into drug trafficking, and halt the trafficking of precursor chemicals used in illegal drug production. But Douglas said other challenges lied in implementing reforms. “They need to drop the barriers between themselves and start working together because the criminals are, they are well out in front, they are truly regional. The law enforcement is not yet regional, the law enforcement is not yet cooperating to the extent if should be regionally,” he said. The Asia Pacific meeting results are to be presented at a special session of the U.N. General Assembly dedicated to the global drug issue in early 2016.

UN Warns of Record Production of Illicit Drugs in Asia

 

[The Great Goose]

different drug, but same thing