Introduction

This article demonstrates the inadequate response of the international community to the suppression of drugs in Myanmar and the lost opportunity by the United States to reverse its policy toward interdiction since 2002. First, it provides a brief history of drug production in Myanmar and examines the reliability of surveys conducted by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United States, both together with Myanmar, on opium cultivation and of estimates of amphetamine type stimulants (ATS) production. Second, it sheds light on international and domestic efforts to halt the production and distribution of opium, heroin and ATS, and discusses the roots of the dramatic decline in opium cultivation and production over the twelve years preceding 2007. Third, it evaluates the alleged involvement of authorities under the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the governing body of Myanmar, in the drug trade. Fourth, it concludes that extensive assistance by the international community and local authorities is vital to avoid a humanitarian disaster in the opium cultivation areas and consequent reversal of the favourable progression.

An Historical Overview

For centuries farmers have grown the opium poppy plant mostly in the far reaches of northern Myanmar for medicine and to raise cash. The British commercialized the cultivation in colonial times. After Independence in 1948, Myanmar nationals, often minority groups in the growing areas, have became the wholesalers, while ethnic Chinese merchants and international syndicates located in Thailand and, later, China have been the ultimate major purchasers of the poppy crop. Since the completion of ceasefire agreements between the Myanmar government and various ethnic armed resistance groups starting in 1989, the latter have been given varying degrees of autonomy in their fiefdoms and are permitted to tax the poppy farmers, opium manufacturers and distributors.

Beginning in 1999, Myanmar and these local ethnic minorities agreed to eliminate poppy growing by 2014 and the former increased its suppression efforts after a period of lethargy.