Myanmar Opium Production Continues To Increase

What should be done with a country that, despite being intentionally watched for last decade or so, is increasingly becoming a global threat by producing killer addictive drugs? How do we plan to control the situation when the survey data clearly indicates the rising growth of opium cultivation?

This country is none other than Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The land they use for growing opium has increased at a 50% rate since 2006. They profit more and more from these banned crops and during the 1990s they were the world’s largest opium producer, mainly because of the government being outsmarted by the militant groups who sell the opium to trade more for illegal arms and ammunition. Opium is converted to heroin which is in high demand in the U.S. and Europe, thus paying high returns.

The United Nations has all the data to confirm what is happening in Myanmar. The only thing left to do is issue a strict warning and apply some severe actions. By merely continuing to produce data, they will not put any pressure on Myanmar to control or stop the growth of opium. Despite of repeated assurance from the Myanmar government every year that they will curb this activity, the reality is it seems to be all talk.