NCJ Number
164357
Date Published
1996
Length
39 pages
Annotation
This report discusses the extent of the heroin threat to the United States, the primary impediments to successful heroin control efforts in Southeast Asia, and the effectiveness of the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) in Burma.
Abstract
This review was conducted from February 1995 through January 1996 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. A description of the scope and methodology of the study is appended. Although heroin is not the primary illegal narcotic in use in the United States, heroin production, trafficking, and consumption are growing threats. Although U.S. heroin control programs in Southeast Asian countries other than Burma have had some limited success, U.S. efforts have not reduced the flow of heroin from the region, because producers and traffickers shift transportation routes and growing areas into countries with inadequate law enforcement capability or political will. In 1994 Burma accounted for approximately 87 percent of the opium cultivated in Southeast Asia and approximately 94 percent of the opium production in the region. Thus, a key to stopping the flow of heroin from Southeast Asia is addressing opium production in Burma; however, there are several reasons why achieving this objective will be difficult. Because of the complex Burmese political environment, U.S. assistance is unlikely to be effective until the Burmese government shows improvement in its democracy and human rights policies and proves its legitimacy to ethnic minority groups in opium-producing areas. The Burmese government is unable or unwilling to make a serious commitment to ending the lucrative drug trade and is unlikely to gain the required political support to control most of the opium cultivation and heroin-trafficking areas within Burma. Although heroin control efforts in Thailand and Hong Kong have achieved some positive results, there has been little counternarcotics cooperation with China, where important regional drug-trafficking routes have recently emerged. UNDCP's crop control, alternative development, and demand-reduction projects in Burma are too small in scale to affect significantly opium poppy cultivation and opium production levels. 3 figures and appended supplementary information