Golden Triangle

Illegal drug trade in China: 'Golden Triangle' as a base, drug trafficking pass through and to the world.

Opium growing and cultivation in ‘ Golden Triangle’ increases recently. Burma produced 580 tons opium in 2010, which is 20% more than that in 2009. China, as a close neighbour to Burma, is on the routes of drug smuggling from Burma to international markets. However, within recent two decades, China is not only a channel of drug trafficking but also a drug consuming country. Previously, drug was only secretly planted and trafficked in remote countryside and rural areas, but rich people in large cities become considerable drug consumers recently.

Changes in the South-East Asian drug market

The South-East Asian drugs market has been undergoing a radical transformation in recent years with the traditional monopoly of opium use being replaced by a plethora of other substances. Nevertheless, South-East Asia has often been touted as one of the key examples of how a successful drug policy can be enacted. The regional and supra-national consensus in the 1990’s was to engage in a widespread poppy eradication process in order to reduce the amount of opium being produced from the Golden triangle region (covering regions of Thailand, Laos, Burma and Vietnam).

Opium cultivation rises in Myanmar

Opium cultivation in Myanmar's northern Shan state has increased dramatically in the past two years, according to a report issued this week by a Thailand-based rights group.

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