Poppy fields now cover a total area of 37,300 hectares, 10 per cent less than the year before, the UN said in a new report titled the Myanmar Opium Survey 2018. Most opium production in Myanmar is concentrated in the northern states of Kachin and Shan. "Entrenched poverty and opium cultivation in Myanmar are closely connected. Poor opium farming areas need better security and sustainable economic alternatives," UNODC Myanmar Country Manager Troels Vester said in a statement. The UN agency said that the decline in opium cultivation needed to be understood in the context of the "dramatically changing" regional drug market, which is shifting to synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine.

Source: bd News24 January 11, 2019 09:33 UTC