Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as top opium producer

[CharlieH]

 

Myanmar is now the world's largest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan, a UN report says.

Its opium production this year is estimated to rise by 36% to 1,080 tonnes, far ahead of the 330 tonnes Afghanistan reportedly produced.

Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan dropped by 95% after a drug ban by the ruling Taliban last year.

Meanwhile, cultivation has expanded in Myanmar, where a brutal civil war, has made it a lucrative source of income.

"The economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 continue to drive farmers in remote areas towards opium to make a living," says Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which authored the report.

Opium, the key ingredient for the hard drug heroin., has been cultivated in Myanmar for decades, where it has funded insurgent groups fighting the government.

 

But in the past year alone, as the civil war triggered by the 2021 coup raged on, cultivation has increased by an estimated 18% - it has also become "increasingly sophisticated", the report says, and more productive, because of the use of densely organised plots, irrigation systems and sometimes fertilisers.

Rising prices for the crop have also drawn more people into growing it. The pandemic and the dire state of Myanmar's economy has also made opium cultivation a more reliable and attractive form of employment. A dismal new report by the World Bank says it expects "little growth" in the country.

Shan State, which has seen fierce fighting between an alliance of three ethnic armed groups and the military, has always been Myanmar's largest producer of opium. An escalation in the conflict in Shan has even brought down powerful mafia families whose wealth was built from gambling, scam centres and narcotics. But the insurgent groups still rely on the sale of opium to fund their operations.

 

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Mr Douglas said that the intensification of the conflict in Shan and other border areas is only expected to lead to an increase in opium production.

 

FULL STORY

[Peterphuket]

Of course wat do you expect with that regime.

Now the united states will not act because they have no interest there, but as soon as they do bussiness there they will be right there to punish the regime.

[Srikcir]

9 hours ago, CharlieH said:

"The economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 continue to drive farmers in remote areas towards opium to make a living,"

And no doubt the junta will offer security for such "farming."

[placeholder]

Given the far greater toxicity of fentanyl, its variants, animal tranquilizers and such, heroin seems almost healthful by comparison.

[spidermike007]

A friend of mine is married to a Burmese woman who comes from a very wealthy family and he tells me that the top 50 or 100 Generals in Burma are multi-billionaires and that they've been making a fortune off of mining, timber, smuggled gemstones and drugs for generations now.

 

There's no doubt that the current regime is enriching themselves to no end on the same. Hooligans, thugs and mafia chieftans. That defines the army and the government. Same here? 

[morrobay]

21 hours ago, placeholder said:

Given the far greater toxicity of fentanyl, its variants, animal tranquilizers and such, heroin seems almost healthful by comparison.

And Thailand would be alot better off if the main drug were opiates. Instead of a drug using population whacked out on bad speed.

[placeholder]

11 minutes ago, morrobay said:

And Thailand would be alot better off if the main drug were opiates. Instead of a drug using population whacked out on bad speed.

Yes, the quality of the speed in Thailand is reportedly abysmal. I've read that it's adulterated with caffeine. It's way past time for the government to enact laws guaranteeing its quality.

[tonbridgebrit]

On 12/14/2023 at 8:15 AM, placeholder said:

Yes, the quality of the speed in Thailand is reportedly abysmal. I've read that it's adulterated with caffeine. It's way past time for the government to enact laws guaranteeing its quality.

Look at the report.  Washington left Afghanistan, the Taliban took Afghanistan back, and, oh look, poppy cultivation dropped 95%.  Basically, US soldiers leaving Afghanistan was a Blessing in Disguise.

Heroine is a deadly product. And here's you, trying to make it look like that heroine is not that dangerous.

We, as people of planet earth, we must fight this war against heroine, opium, morphine. It really is a highly lethal product. Yes, fentanyl is also highly lethal. America is plagued by fentanyl, America has to stamp out fentanyl, anybody producing or selling fentanyl in America should be given life imprisonment or put on death row. But let's not pretend that heroine is not damgerous.
 

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, tonbridgebrit said:

Look at the report.  Washington left Afghanistan, the Taliban took Afghanistan back, and, oh look, poppy cultivation dropped 95%.  Basically, US soldiers leaving Afghanistan was a Blessing in Disguise.

Heroine is a deadly product. And here's you, trying to make it look like that heroine is not that dangerous.

We, as people of planet earth, we must fight this war against heroine, opium, morphine. It really is a highly lethal product. Yes, fentanyl is also highly lethal. America is plagued by fentanyl, America has to stamp out fentanyl, anybody producing or selling fentanyl in America should be given life imprisonment or put on death row. But let's not pretend that heroine is not damgerous.
 

It was, I thought, obviously irony. Still, irony with a point. And maybe you should direct your complaints about fentanyl to the Chinese government. Most of the precursors to fentanyl come from China. The Chinese are doing a roaring trade with the Mexican cartels.

 

China's Role in the Fentanyl Crisis

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-role-in-the-fentanyl-crisis/

 

[Emdog]

How much of that production goes through Thailand to the world? How much "trickle down" economic benefit do the rich and powerful accrue here?

[morrobay]

On 12/17/2023 at 11:30 AM, tonbridgebrit said:

Look at the report.  Washington left Afghanistan, the Taliban took Afghanistan back, and, oh look, poppy cultivation dropped 95%.  Basically, US soldiers leaving Afghanistan was a Blessing in Disguise.

Heroine is a deadly product. And here's you, trying to make it look like that heroine is not that dangerous.

 

The US should have never been in Afghanistan in the first place outside of some US army rangers to get Osama bin laden. You seem to be misreading placeholders post that waylaid my post with placeholders "irony". My point is that a population on opiates is much preferred to be around than that same drug using population whacked out on (pure) meth-amphetamines. Thailand in this case. So your referring to opiates in error to his quote that was about amphetamines. Of course pure heroine would be better that this fentynal plague.