Opium production on the rise-THAILAND-BURMA

http://www.bangkokpost.com/171108_News/17Nov2008_news10.php

SUBIN KHEUNKAEW AND THEERAWAT KHAMTHITA

CHIANG MAI : Authorities are worried about an increase in poppy cultivation in the Golden Triangle, fearing that opium production in the region would be boosted due to the global economic slowdown.Deputy secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) Pitaya Jinawat said yesterday that opium cultivation in Thailand, Laos and Burma has increased over the past three years.


He said poppy-growing areas in the country's northern region, a prime cultivating area, increased from 700 to 1,800 rai last year and was expected to grow to 2,000 rai this year.



A significant increase in opium production in Laos and Burma has also been reported, he said.


In a statement issued last week by Shan State Army leader Col Yodsuek, the production of raw opium in Shan state would triple this year to 3,000 tonnes.


Mr Pitaya said the situation has alarmed the United Nations Development Programme, which plans to call a meeting to find out the real causes of the unusual increase. Thailand, meanwhile, has its own five-year plan to reduce planting areas, he said.


The NCB will focus on areas where opium is grown repeatedly even though authorities destroy the plants every year.


There are about 1,000 rai in the northern provinces where heavy suppression is needed, Mr Pitaya said. Under the five-year plan, the NCB will also join hands with the royal projects to encourage farmers to switch to other crops.


According to Mr Pitaya, most opium growers in Thailand are financed by influential figures, most of whom are either local politicians or ex-state officials.


The NCB will ask the cabinet to set aside a special budget for the task. The government recently renewed its campaign against narcotics trafficking.


Porntep Iamprapai, head of the NCB's upper northern office, said the agency is racing against time to secure the grant under this government.


"If parliament is dissolved, our plan would hit a snag," he said.


Meanwhile, the Pha Muang Task force arrested a Burmese man as he tried to smuggle 4,000 speed pills into Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district.


Yi Taiyai, 37, of the Tai Yai ethnic minority, paddled his boat across the Sai river from Burma to the Sob Ma pier in Mae Sai. He told police he was hired by a man, whom he only identified as Mr B, in Mae Sai for 2,000 baht to take the pills, produced by the Wa ethnic group, to Thailand.