Opium farming booming after coup

Deadly bloom: A member of Pat Jasan – a grassroots organisation motivated by their faith to root out the destructive influence of drugs – holding poppies as his group slashes and uproots them from a hillside in Lung Zar village, Kachin state, in this file photo. According to a UN report, the production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade. — AP

The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, according to a United Nations report.

In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically-elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33% increase in cultivation area to 40,100ha, according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime yesterday.