{"id":21445,"date":"2018-11-07T07:22:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T07:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21445"},"modified":"2018-11-07T07:22:06","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T07:22:06","slug":"golden-triangles-drug-production-surges-amid-opioid-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21445","title":{"rendered":"Golden Triangle’s drug production surges amid opioid worries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Organised crime groups are expanding and diversifying drug production in Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle raising concern the region could emerge as a hub for synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).<\/p>\n

Asia-Pacific counter-narcotics police met in Myanmar<\/a>‘s capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday to negotiate a new strategy to curb the supply of chemicals used in synthetic drug production.<\/p>\n

The Golden Triangle, which is centred around Myanmar’s conflict-ridden north, has exported illicit drugs to the world for decades. While opium cultivation and heroin trafficking has slumped in recent years, synthetic drug manufacturing – especially methamphetamine – has soared.<\/p>\n

UNODC regional representative Jeremy Douglas said the boom was “like nothing we have ever seen before, and it has required a matching surge in precursor chemicals.”<\/p>\n

Seizures of methamphetamine sourced from the region have leapt since 2016 with consignments of the highly addictive drug intercepted in South Korea and New Zealand<\/a>, and most countries in between.<\/p>\n

The price of methamphetamine – both in crystal and pill form – has fallen in many countries, according to UNODC data, indicating large amounts of synthetic drugs are still hitting the streets undetected by law enforcers.<\/p>\n

“While we are a significant source of illicit drugs, we are not a source of the chemicals,” Myanmar’s vice minister of home affairs, Major General Aung Thu, said in a press release.<\/p>\n

The flow of precursor chemicals to northern Myanmar, mostly from neighbouring China<\/a>, has continued largely unimpeded. Chemicals and cutting agents from India, Pakistan<\/a>, Vietnam and Thailand<\/a> have also been found in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

Synthetic opioids fear<\/h2>\n

Drug gangs are also starting to produce ketamine in Myanmar’s north, a party drug that requires different technical expertise from the production of methamphetamine, said Douglas.<\/p>\n

“We have seen drug syndicates in the Golden Triangle scale-up methamphetamine and add ketamine to their repertoire. There is increasing concern among officials here that they will soon go into manufacturing synthetic opioids,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Given their sophistication, we think it is only a matter of time they do it. They are ruthless and the region has the conditions necessary for production and pre-existing market demand to capitalise on.”<\/p>\n

China and Mexico<\/a> are the major suppliers of extremely potent opioids to North America, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. It said in a report last week the US was gripped by an “ongoing fentanyl epidemic”.<\/p>\n

There were more than 63,000 drug overdoses in the United States<\/a> in 2016, a record high. Drug poisoning deaths are the leading cause of injury and death there, and synthetic opioids are the “most lethal” contributor, the report said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Paramilitary police carry seized crystal meth during a crackdown in southern China [Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

China, which shares a border with northern Myanmar, has begun to crack down on illicit opioid production. It follows a largely successful campaign to clear out methamphetamine labs in southern China in 2013-14.<\/p>\n

The surge in methamphetamine production in Myanmar followed the China crackdown.<\/p>\n

Opioids have yet to have much effect on the Asia-Pacific drug market, although fentanyl has been imported into Australia recently, Douglas said.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement agencies from China, India, Southeast Asia, the US, Canada and Australia are attending the Naypyidaw conference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organised crime groups are expanding and diversifying drug production in Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle raising concern the region could emerge as a hub for synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Asia-Pacific counter-narcotics police met in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday to negotiate a new strategy to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}