A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) this week pointing out that Myanmar’s Shan State is one of the world’s largest producers of crystal methamphetamine is hardly surprising.
There have been record seizures of meth in the last two years in ASEAN countries and the surrounding region – 1.6 tonnes in Indonesia, 1.2 tonnes in Malaysia, 788 kilograms (kg) in Thailand, 1.2 tonnes in Western Australia and 0.9 tonnes in Melbourne – all of which is thought to have come from Shan State.
Authorities in the region seized more than 25 tonnes of crystal meth in 2017, nearly all believed to have been produced in Myanmar. And with the Brussels-based ICG estimating that seizure rates are below 10 per cent, total production could be a staggering 250 tonnes.
“These record seizures are evidence of the scale of the problem rather than of any genuine success in addressing it,” the report says. “Despite massive seizures, prices of crystal meth have remained stable, a clear indication that they are a small proportion of total volumes.”
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