Public health

Pharmaceuticals

What Does China’s Belt and Road Have to Do with Myanmar’s Meth Problem?

If Myanmar is to break an addiction to methamphetamine production that has seen it become one of the world’s largest suppliers there is one country above all others that must act: China. That’s according to a report released on Tuesday that highlighted how complexities in ...

Law Enforcement from Mekong Nations Unite as Drug Trafficking Worsens in the Golden Triangle

Law enforcement agencies from Thailand, China, Myanmar and Laos will once again join together to boost measures against drug trafficking, following the worsening situation in northern Thailand. The drugs being carried through the Golden Triangle bore the same characteristics with pills imprinted with a symbol ...

Farmers in Thailand Welcoming New Law Allowing Cultivation of Marijuana for Medical Use

Farmers in Thailand are welcoming a new law allowing cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes Wednesday, in an Asian first that promises an economic bonanza but also fears that foreign companies could reap the rewards. Thailand’s National Assembly passed a bill Tuesday legalizing the use ...

Agence France-Presse

Methamphetamines from Myanmar are causing problems across Asia

The Chinese cemetery in Kutkai, a town in the north of Myanmar’s Shan state, is a popular spot to get high. Twitchy men with gaunt faces and wild eyes lurk near its entrance. The ornate tombs provide a good place to stash drugs and weapons ...

New Strategies Needed as EAOs Adapt to Changes in Drug Demand

There is both good news and bad news for Myanmar on the drug front: a sharp decline in opium cultivation and a shift toward synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine. In the past 20 years, opium cultivation has declined to 41,000 hectares, a 75 percent drop from ...

Meth epidemic in the Mekong region

This week, Vientiane played host to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) “High Level Conference on Transnational Organized Crime in Laos People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and the Mekong Region”. The UNODC brought together senior Lao PDR officials, international partners and select experts ...

Thailand wants to be the first Asian nation to legalize medical marijuana

“Thailand has the best marijuana in the world.” So claims Jet Sirathraanon, chairman of the country’s National Legislative Assembly’s standing committee of public health, who is pushing to legalize cannabis for medical use. A draft bill to permit medical marijuana had been sent to the ...

Southeast Asia Drug Use Persists Despite Death Penalty

Southeast Asian authorities are not shy about doling out the death penalty to punish drug traffickers, and yet narcotics abuse has not abated. If anything, it is on the rise, which begs the question of whether the region’s war on drugs is working. []“This unique characteristic ...

Mekong rethinks drug policy as syndicates pump meth from Myanmar

The production of synthetic drugs in the Mekong Region – and Myanmar in particular – has reached “alarming levels”, the United Nations said today as regional anti-drug authorities meet to negotiate a new strategy.  Methamphetamine seizures in Cambodia, China, Lao, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have ...

‘Alarming levels’ of methamphetamine trafficking in Asia’s Mekong, UN warns

Organized crime groups in Asia’s Mekong region have intensified the production and trafficking of highly-addictive methamphetamine, extending the illegal trade into countries such as Australia, Japan and New Zealand, senior drug policy leaders warned on Monday at a United Nations-backed regional conference.  Keep reading ...

Contact us

Contact us

Do you have questions on the content published by Open Development Mekong? We will gladly help you.

Have you found a technical problem or issue on the Open Development Mekong website?

Tell us how we're doing.

Do you have resources that could help expand the Open Development Mekong website? We will review any map data, laws, articles, and documents that we do not yet have and see if we can implement them into our site. Please make sure the resources are in the public domain or fall under a Creative Commons license.

File was deleted
ERROR!

Disclaimer: Open Development Mekong will thoroughly review all submitted resources for integrity and relevancy before the resources are hosted. All hosted resources will be in the public domain, or licensed under Creative Commons. We thank you for your support.

MGhPa
* The idea box couldn't be blank! Something's gone wrong, Please Resubmit the form! Please add the code correctly​ first.

Thank you for taking the time to get in contact!