Prospects for Controlling Narcotics Production and Trafficking in Myanmar

The problem of narcotics trafficking (and more recently, methamphetamine production and trafficking) in Myanmar has been a regional and international problem for decades. The issue must be approached as an economic and social problem rather than a political or military one. The approaches must be multinational and multi-discipline, taking into account the economic, commercial, political, and social issues that force the cultivation of the opium poppy and the production of illegal drugs in the Shan State. This multi-dimensional approach is preferable whether the present military government or a democratic alternative holds power in Yangon. The problems include the lack of viable alternative crops, non-existent transportation, the problem of armed gangs (whether ethnic or economic in nature), the lack of government presence, and the historical inability of the Myanmar armed forces to control the region.