'Burma's Political Instability Could Increase Drug Threat'—Report

Political instability in Burma could lead to an increase in drug trafficking and the relocation of narcotics production facilities, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The report, released in Bangkok on Thursday, says: “The political situation in Myanmar in 2009 is unsettled, with open hostilities between government and ethnic groups previously under cease-fire agreement. This instability could affect the current illicit drug production and trafficking dynamics in the region.

“There is a likelihood that these changing conditions will serve as a push factor for increasing the trafficking of illicit drugs and could result in the relocation of clandestine manufacturing sites across the border.”

Heroin remains the major drug being traded, followed by opium and methamphetamines and cannabis. But while the amount of heroin traded was decreasing and opium and cannabis remained “largely stable,” methamphetamine use was increasing, the report said.

More than 4.5 million methamphetamine pills were seized in the first six months of 2009—around 2 million in one raid alone, in Kengtung, Shan State, in March. The number of seized pills was four times the number confiscated in 2008, but was still far short of the 2006 figure of 19.1 million.

Aung Wa, the chairman of the Kachin Development Network Group, said more than 60 percent of the young people of Kachin State were using methamphetamines.

 “Our community has free access to all kind of drugs, such as methamphetamines and heroin, so most young people, even university students, take drugs,” he said.

Brand Sam, a 23-year-old Kachin and former jade mine worker, said most of those employed in the industry took methamphatamines.

Workers used the drug for its stimulant effect, a Bangkok news conference was told by Gary Lewis, representative for East Asia and the Pacific for the UN agency.

“It heightens awareness, it heightens ability to focus, to stay awake for longer in a region where there is great emphasis on economic development and intense competition at an economic level,” Lewis said.

The agency report warned that Asia in general faced a rising threat from amphetamine-type drugs, while the cultivation of opium was decreasing.

Opium continues to be a cash crop in Burma's northern Shan State, despite official efforts to stamp it out, according to Lway Moe Hlaing, a member of the Palaung Students and Youth Organization, based in Mae Sot, Thailand. Opium field workers were paid more than 3,000 kyat (US $3) a day, she said.

The Burmese military regime has reported destroying 7,893 acres of opium poppy fields in Shan and Kachin states during this year's growing season.

Burma remains the world's second largest producer of heroin after Afghanistan, according to US and UN experts.