Unregulated border drives meth epidemic in Myanmar

Published on 10 Aug 2016 9:33:52 AM

A man in Kachin state in Myanmar bubbles up a dose of ya-ba... the street name for methamphetamine.
Already the world's second-largest producer of opium and its derivative heroin- Myanmar is now facing a meth epidemic.
Drug authorities say part of the problem is this... the country's porous 80 mile border with India where cold-remedies containing pseuduoephedrine have been flooding in.
Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient of meth. It's also an over the counter decongestant readily available in India's ill-regulated pharmaceuticals sector.
Sometimes hidden in rice sacks or packed into luggage carried by bus passengers, Burmese authorities have seen a cold-remedy smuggling surge over the past five years. Indian narcotic officials say the smuggling has dropped.
Officials from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime say both countries need to step up intelligence sharing.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) ASIA PACIFIC HEAD OF UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME (UNODC), JEREMY DOUGLAS, SAYING:
"There's a lot of activity here indicating many types of smuggling are taking place, many types of trafficking, so it's definitely a border where cooperation needs to take place, where there needs to be concerted effort put to kind of dampen that transnational organised crime."
Along the highway near the Indian border, men fix one of the many bridges that link the countries.
Indian and Burmese authorities hope upgrading the roads will improve trade, but experts fear it will also encourage drug trafficking and especially the smuggling of cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine.