UN warns of drug situation in Southeast Asia

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today released a report showing that the volume of meth seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2021 is a record high, at nearly 1.01 billion tablets, weighing about 91 tons. This is part of a total of 172 tons of methamphetamine of all types collected in 2021.

This number is 7 times higher than 10 years ago. In addition to being mainly consumed in Southeast Asia, drugs are also exported to New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan in East Asia, and increasingly to South Asia.

“The production and trade of methamphetamine has increased again as supply is concentrated in the Mekong region, especially in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar,” said UN representative to Southeast Asia Jeremy Douglas.

The report from UNODC also said that increased supply makes drug prices cheaper and more accessible, creating more risks for the community. Methamphetamine is easy to manufacture and has overtaken opium and heroin as the most produced and traded drug in Southeast Asia.

Golden Triangle, the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, has been a major opium producer in the region and has many processing rooms for heroin production. These border areas have largely become lawless and exploited by drug-producing and trafficking gangs after decades of political instability.

UNODC believes that due to the lack of attention and measures by the authorities on this issue, criminal organizations have been tolerated to promote the production of meth, sell it to a growing young population, and stabilize its financial resources. main.

Drug production in Myanmar often involves armed ethnic groups. These groups sometimes go to war with each other and with the government.

“Every group denies any drug connection and points to each other, but drugs are still thought to account for the largest share of the economy in most countries.” border area Myanmar,” said Mr. Douglas. “There is a lot of information that these groups are related to modulation room systems and shipments.”

The report also pointed out that Laos is one of the countries most affected by methamphetamine from Myanmar. At the end of October 2021, Lao police stopped a truck carrying barrels of beer in the area bordering Thailand and Myanmar. During the search, the functional forces discovered and confiscated more than 55 million ice pills and 1.5 tons of solid methamphetamine. “This is a drug bust history’s biggest East Asia and Southeast Asia,” Douglas said.

UNODC is also concerned that criminal groups are targeting Cambodia as a drug production site. The report said the country last year dismantled a secret industrial-scale processing room for the production of ketamine and other drugs.

Duc Trung (Follow AFP, AP)