Myanmar burns US$300 million worth of confiscated drugs
Myanmar has a long history of drug production and is a major source of illegal drugs bound for East and Southeast Asia
Officials in Myanmar’s major cities destroyed about US$300 million worth of confiscated illegal drugs on Thursday.
The destroyed drugs included opium, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, ketamine and the stimulant known as ice, or crystal meth, Yangon Police Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin said in a speech at a drug-burning ceremony.
The drug burnings came nearly a month after UN experts warned of unprecedented levels of methamphetamine production and trafficking from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, and Myanmar’s eastern Shan State in particular.
The production of opium and heroin historically flourished there, largely because of the lawlessness in border areas where Myanmar’s central government has been able to exercise only minimum control over various ethnic minority militias, some of them partners in the drug trade.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a May report that the political crisis across the country after the military takeover in 2021 – which led to a civil war – has turbocharged growth of the methamphetamine trade.