Andreas Frank, expert on crime and money laundering notes: The UNODC sounded the alarm over record seizures of methamphetamine, with the drug flooding streets and clubs in Asia and enticing a new generation of users.
Methamphetamine remains the top illicit drug threat in East and Southeast Asia, according to a new UNODC report. Seizures of methamphetamine in both pill and crystalline forms reached record highs there in 2012, with 227 million methamphetamine pills seized – a 60 per cent increase from 2011 and a more-than seven-fold increase since 2008 – along with 11.6 metric tonnes of crystalline methamphetamine, a 12 per cent rise from 2011.
The report says that methamphetamine is now the first or second most used illicit drug in 13 of the 15 Asia Pacific countries surveyed. The use of methamphetamine increased in Cambodia, China, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Methamphetamine can be ingested, smoked, snorted and injected. In its pill form – known in Thailand as “yaba”, which means “crazy medicine” – it is used both as a party drug and pick-me-up for low paid workers with long hours.
Those concerned with the problem in the region note the ease with which one can get addicted to yaba, which is especially popular among young working males.
“They’ve been unaware of what they’re taking. They think it’s a nice little pretty pink pill and it’s harmless because it’s a pill and pills are good. So they get into it,” an UNODC official said.
In Thailand the use of methamphetamine has become a major public health issue, said Kelley, with signs that traffickers are pushing “promotional sales” of the more potent crystal meth to develop the market.
Thailand saw a 63 percent increase in people admitted for treatment for yaba last year, to 245,920. The number of those given help for crystal meth, while still smaller at 16,500, was more than double the previous year.
Drug use among young people aged 15 to 24, manual labourers and farmers has “increased significantly”, according to the UNODC report.
The UN estimates that heroin and methamphetamine generate sales of at least $30 billion in Southeast Asia and China annually. Methamphetamine is thought to account for around $16.5 billion of that – a sum that exceeds the annual economic output of Cambodia.
The drug is still mostly made in isolated mobile laboratories hidden in the forests of Shan State in eastern Myanmar, which is also the second-largest global source of opium after Afghanistan.
However in 2012 at least one major “fairly sophisticated large lab” was discovered with quantities of meth suggesting “industrial production”. Some well-organised groups had financing from outside the country – with Myanmar’s meth labs relying on precursor chemicals smuggled from China and India.
Authorities across the region also face regulatory challenges in combating the trade. In particular, authorities struggle to oversee the chemical and pharmaceutical industries which make or acquire the ingredients needed to manufacture the drugs.
According to UNODC, diversion of precursor chemicals from the pharmaceutical industry and diversion of pharmaceutical products, particularly out of South Asia – India and to some extent, Bangladesh – feed into the drug production cycle. The illicit drugs are generating billions of dollars in the region. The money is then laundered through banks and property markets in Asia, according to specialists in the region.
Corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary is also speeding the spread of meth across Asia. The graft is permeating through professions not normally associated with trans-national organized crime.
There are many cases within this region of medical supply companies diverting pharmaceuticals knowingly into this meth production, from hospitals or from doctors’ medical supplies. So there’s obviously corruption there, as well.
Frank-cs.org
UNODC / UNODC Regional ATS Report
