The UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, has issued the World Drug Report 2011.
The global situation is largely stable: “opiates on a downward trend, increases in the use of cocaine and synthetic drugs” it writes, just like a financial statement.
South East Asia is bucking the trend, however. In Burma opium growing and production have risen (580 metric tonnes in 2010).
“A toxic mix of problems” is how Gary Lewis, UNODC representative for East Asia and the Pacific, puts it. “In Myanmar many people live in a war zone. The problem is getting money. Either to survive or to fight...The situation with food shortages in the Shan states is terrible. If you’re a father you do what you can for your family".
Aside from any consideration about the results and the efficacy of the UN agencies, men like him provide some hope. Because they don’t speak in abstract terms, they don’t judge; they try to act. In spite of everything. “We can’t talk of eradication”, he said, referring both to plantations and to the issue in general. “We are trying to work towards containment”. That’s a lesson in reality and in moral honesty.
(Click here to download the summary of the report)