US opioid epidemic to feel the Myanmar heat

The opioid epidemic in the US  and Europe will feel the heat with the ongoing civil war turning in favor of anti-regime forces in Myanmar, the world’s largest opium producer, where armed rebels, including ethnic Christians, are fighting a civil war against the ruling military.

Myanmar’s government-in-exile, National Unity Government (NUG), on April 4 claimed control over 174 townships in the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation.

NUG Prime Minister Mann Winn Khaing Thann said in a statement that relevant ministries are coordinating to prevent the townships from “deviating from [NUG] government policies.”

“It’s imperative that we manage these situations closely,” Thann added.

On April 5, anti-regime forces claimed seizing key towns in eastern Myanmar on the Thai border.

In western Chin State, the country's only Christian-majority state, armed rebels are planning to resume operations against the junta after a two-month hiatus over an internal feud over forming a new state government.

The rebels are expected to consolidate positions before the monsoon arrives in Myanmar in late May or early June.

More than 20 ethnic armed organizations have been fighting Myanmar’s military alongside the armed wing of the NUG since February 2021 when the ruling army ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, nearly 47,900 people have been killed in three years in the civil war. About 2.3 million people have been declared internally displaced and some 95,600 people are considered refugees.

The army has unleashed airstrikes and artillery shelling, forcing women, children, the elderly and the infirm to flee their homes.

Pope Francis has spoken several times about Myanmar, which he regards with much affection after visiting the country in November 2017.

Four dioceses — Hakha, Kalay, Loikaw and Pekhon — out of the 16 dioceses in the conflict-torn nation have been badly hit.

Bishop Celso Ba Shwe of Loikaw in eastern Kayah state last year fled his cathedral and residence and nearly two-thirds of the 90,000 Catholics in the state have been forced to flee their homes. At least 16 out of 38 parishes in the diocese have been hit by artillery shelling and airstrikes.

Christians make up 6 percent of Myanmar’s population of 54 million, 89 percent of which is Buddhist.

Despite chaos, social unrest, and civil war, the army-ruled Myanmar has managed to increase opium cultivation.

In 2023, Myanmar became the world's largest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan. Its opium production last year rose by 36 percent to 1,080 tonnes, far ahead of the 330 tonnes churned out by the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.  

Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to neighboring Asian nations, while heroin processed in plants on the borders reaches Western nations. Together with Afghanistan, Myanmar is the source of most heroin sold around the world. 

The region, covering the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos, is called Golden Triangle, historically a major source of opium and the production of heroin, the most addictive drugs in the world due to its quick action on the brain.

Myanmar’s opium economy is pegged at $2 billion by the U.N., while the regional heroin trade is valued at $10 billion. Production of heroin and trafficking is the most profitable part of the opium economy.

Economic hardship along with higher global prices for the opium resin that is used to make heroin is pushing more farmers in Myanmar to switch over to opium cultivation which is mainly concentrated in Shan and Christian-majority Chin states.

Though technically illegal, opium cultivation to produce heroin has been tolerated in Myanmar as it benefits all stakeholders, mainly the military and armed rebel ethnic groups.

Many Western nations, including the US, are trying to cope with drug overdoses and deaths from the drugs.