Main Page for Bureau of Special Investigation

of Home Affairs

Committee for Drug Abuse Control

 The Myanmar people abhor drugs consumption both on the

religious and cultural  levels.

During the 16^th century, although foreign Arab

merchants engaged in smuggling opium into 

Pathein and Thanhlyin, the people were known to have

abstained from its use. This came about due to religious grounds.

It was also strictly controlled during the Myanmar monarchy.

Consequent upon official permission for its cultivation in

Yunnan as an aftermath of the Anglo-Chinese Opium War, the opium

cultivation spilled over into contiguous areas in Myanmar’s 

Kachin,  Kayah, 

Shan and Karen states. Soon after the British annexation,  

the legal sanction for 

its cultivation  extended

right  up to the

eastern bank of the Thanlwin river. The Opium Act was promulgated

but the force of law failed to embrace Shan, Kachin and 

Chin States actually giving rise 

to rampant rife of opium dens and even brazen open market

sale of the drug.

Post independent  era

saw Myanmar having to grapple with the problem of Chiang Kai Shek

– led  porting of

Kuo Ming Tan stragglers marking incursions into the Shan States

and spoiling for a fight with the People’s Liberation Army. For

their own survival and stand-off 

with the PLA,  the

Kuo Ming Tans are known to have engaged in rampant poppy

cultivation and opium trafficking. The crisis was aggravated by

insurgents cashing in on opium cultivation and trafficking for

their own sustenance as well as joining hands with profiteering

foreign merchants.

The 1970’s saw the Burma Communist Party’s increasing

foray into the Koekang-Wa  areas 

coercing  the

local inhabitants into poppy cultivation monopolizing raw opium

for processing  into

No. 4 heroin, thereby enlisting foreign experts and importing

illegal chemical precursors.

The Union Government accentuated the anti-drug campaign

with international assistance. The insurrection problem, 

being intermingled  with

drug trafficking,  the 

Armed Forces  swung

into operation waging  quite

a number of anti-suppression drives that in the 1980’s that led

to an upsurge of returnees to the legal fold and a proportionate

upbeat in the drug suppression drive.

The political situation however vitiated the unqualified

acquisition of international cooperation. The State Peace and

Development Council is resolved to eradicate the drug menace with

own resources. The State leaders have accordingly drawn up a plan