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Myanmar Returns to What Sells: Heroin
Regions
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A decade ago, Myanmar seemed on course to wipe out the opium fields and heroin jungle labs along its eastern border, the notorious Golden Triangle. Today, valley after valley in these mist-shrouded mountains is covered with resplendent opium poppies, tended by farmers who perch on steep hillsides to harvest the plant’s sticky, intoxicating sap.
“For many people in this country opium is not a problem, it’s the solution — a way for small-scale farmers to increase incomes to buy salt, rice, medicines and other essentials,” said Tom Kramer, a researcher with the Transnational Institute, an organization based in the Netherlands that tracks illicit drugs.