Myanmar opium production surges since coup, UN finds

Production of opium has flourished in Myanmar since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year, according to a UN report.

In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33% increase in the cultivation area to 40,100 hectares, according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime released on Thursday.

“Economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas in northern Shan and border states have had little option but to move back to opium,” said the UN office’s regional representative, Jeremy Douglas.

The overall value of the Myanmar opiate economy, based on UN estimates, ranges between $660m and $2bn, depending on how much was sold locally and how much of the raw opium was processed into heroin or other drugs.

“Virtually all the heroin reported in east and south-east Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan,” Douglas said.

“There is no comparing the two at this point, as Afghanistan still produces far more, but the expansion under way in Myanmar should not be dismissed and needs attention as it will likely continue – it is directly tied to the security and economic situation we see unfolding today.”

Decades of political instability have made the frontier regions of Myanmar largely lawless, to be exploited by drug producers and traffickers. Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region, Douglas said.

“It is really where the value is for traffickers,” he said. “Very high profits.”

The cultivation of opium had been trending downward in recent years before the military took control. Production estimates hit a bottom of 400 tonnes in 2020. After rising slightly in 2021, that spiked in 2022 to an estimated 790 tonnes, according to the report.

Myanmar has been plunged into a state of civil war since the military’s takeover.

The violence has meant that the government has been unable to reach some areas to carry out drug eradication raids and has also had to divert its resources elsewhere. Consequently, eradication efforts appear to have decreased substantially, with 1,403 hectares reported eradicated in 2022 – approximately 70% fewer than in 2021.

As the conflict continues to take its toll on Myanmar’s economy, an increasing number of rural households have been pushed into relying more on opium cultivation for income, the UN said.

“The expansion of opium production that is under way is fundamentally about poverty and people in rural areas reacting to the economic situation,” Douglas said. “It has always been there in tough times. At the same time, the security situation is clearly difficult with increasing frequency and intensity of conflict, and those involved in the drug economy have been left largely unchecked.”

Its synthetic drug economy has also been surging for the same reasons, with reported regional seizures of methamphetamine and other drugs reaching record levels.

Source: The Guardian/Associated Press