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Published December 2008
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime produced this report. The preface states,
"This year’s South East Asia Opium Survey shows that the region, once notorious as heroin’s
Golden Triangle, has a limited opium problem that is concentrated in one region of Myanmar. The region accounts for 424 tons of opium (down from 472 tons a year earlier) for around 5% of the world’s total illicit opium output, down from 33% in 1998 and more than 50% in 1990. Thailand and the Lao PDR are almost opium free. Myanmar remains the world’s second biggest source of opium, accounting for 28,500 hectares in 2008 (a 3% rise over last year). Cultivation is mostly limited to the Shan State which accounts for 89% of the national total.
To put this into perspective, compare with Afghanistan. In 1996 there were 163,000 hectares of opium in Myanmar, about the same amount grown in Afghanistan this year (157,000 ha). The yield in Myanmar is four times lower than in Afghanistan: 14.4 kg/ha as opposed to 45-50kg/ha. Because of scarcity, prices are much higher than in Afghanistan, and there is major price divergence within South East Asia. This suggests that the market is fractured, and mostly catering to local or regional demand.
While opium’s impact on Myanmar is waning, for a poor country, opium production of 410 tons
in 2008, resulting in a potential value of $123 million (at the farm gate) is a significant cash crop, and one that involves 840,000 people. Further progress is needed if the government is going to reach its target (set in 1999) of making Myanmar opium-free by 2014.
At least there were significant increases in eradication in 2008. Indeed, at 4,820 hectares,
Myanmar eradicated almost as much opium as Afghanistan (5,480 ha) even though Afghanistan had five times more land under opium cultivation.
Eradication of poverty is a greater challenge. Many of the opium farmers in South East Asia are
extremely poor. Rising opium prices may make it more attractive for farmers to revert back to
opium cultivation, especially if no alternative sources of income are available. Further
development assistance is therefore needed, not least in Laos that has made significant progress in reducing opium cultivation over the past five years.
Drug use remains a problem in the region, particularly in opium growing communities. A new
book of photographs on the Golden Triangle by former UNODC Goodwill Ambassador
Alessandro Scotti shows the human tragedy of addiction.
Despite the diminishing prevalence of opium in South East Asia, the region still has a drug
problem. As revealed in UNODC’s 2008 Global Assessment of amphetamines (ATS) and ecstasy,
the Greater Mekong sub-region has become a major hub for the production and trafficking of
synthetic drugs. Urgent steps are therefore needed to consolidate progress towards making the
Golden Triangle opium free, and to head off a major ATS crisis."
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