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Drug War Far from Over in China, SE Asia
By Alexa Olesen/AP Writer/Beijing, China
October 20, 2005

Anti-drug officials from China and Southeast Asia said Thursday they have made great progress in clearing opium poppy fields but warned that abuse of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs is widespread and growing.

 

The officials were speaking at the end of a three-day conference held by China, the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United Nations and international law enforcement groups.

 

Maj-Gen Maung Oo, an official of Burma’s Home Affairs Ministry, said poppy cultivation in his country, part of the heroin-producing “Golden Triangle,” has been reduced to limited border areas near China.

 

The UN said in a June report that opium poppy cultivation in Burma fell 23 percent from 2003 to 2004, and production in nearby Laos fell 43 percent during the same period.

 

But while opium cultivation waned, the business of synthetic drugs has been booming in Asia, the officials said.

 

Some 80 percent of the world’s methamphetamine seizures occur in the region, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Costa said Burma is the region’s largest methamphetamine producer, “Amphetamines obviously are replacing the narcotics, are replacing opium and heroin,” said Costa.

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Anti-drug war combats speed

2005-10-21 Beijing Time
IN the land of the "Golden Triangle," the major concern of officials these days is not the traditional scourge of opium but the newer scourge of amphetamines.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are cooperating to combat not only opium and its derivatives but also new drugs like amphetamines.

China and ASEAN yesterday endorsed the Beijing Declaration against drugs. It is an updated plan of action and joint initiative against amphetamine-type stimulants, their manufacture and international trafficking. Three anti-drug documents were issued at the conference in Beijing, the 2nd International Congress of the ASEAN and China Cooperative Operations in Response to Dangerous Drugs. It concluded yesterday.

It was attended by 200 delegates from 10 ASEAN countries, China, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other international organizations.

Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Zhang Xinfeng said joint cooperation on drug trafficking had entered a new stage. A new drug situation has emerged in a region traditionally known for opium in the Golden Triangle region.

Experts said that opium poppy cultivation in the Golden Triangle has been reduced gradually year by year and heroin yield has constantly decreased. Still, the dangers of traditional drugs persist.

And the crimes of manufacturing and trafficking amphetamine-type stimulants, known as ATS, in the region have become rampant. The amount of seized ATS represents 80 percent of the total confiscated worldwide.

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