Myanmar is the world’s second largest opium producer after Afghanistan and is Southeast Asia’s biggest synthetic drug maker, says the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC).
Myanmar has 300,000 drug users, according to the UNDOC. Drug production in the country’s war-ravaged borderlands has surged in recent years, particularly the manufacture of methamphetamine tablets in jungle laboratories.
Myanmar’s health ministry plans to set up eight one-stop rehabilitation centers to provide treatment and counseling services to drug addicts as the country wages an uphill battle against surging opium production.
The new facilities offering a full range of services at one location will open soon, Hla Htay, program manager of the National Drug Abuse Control Program, said at a press conference at Yangon’s Thingangyun Sanpya General Hospital.