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Shan State Poppy Farmers Say Raw Opium Prices in Slow Decline
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Poppy growers in southern Shan State said prices for raw opium have fallen during the current harvest season, continuing a trend of slowly declining prices for the illicit crop in recent years.
Tom Kramer, an expert on the Burmese drug trade, said in a recent interview that, “In the past we used to see more big dealers, but as a result of law enforcement this has changed,” adding that now there are “a lot of small dealers, some Chinese dealers, and they sell to the big dealers.”
Kramer, who is with the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute, has said, however, that there were no indications that the overall drug trade was declining. His organization advocates supporting socio-economic development projects for impoverished farmers, rather than cracking down, in order to reduce the trade.