Myanmar’s Drug Flow May Not Lessen

The apparent end of the career of Myanmar’s opium king, Khun Sa, will have little if any short-term impact on the flood of heroin flowing from that nation’s section of the Golden Triangle region, anti-narcotics officials said.

But the drug lord’s recent surrender to the Myanmar government has given Yangon the chance to prove it is sincere when it says it wants to stamp out opium growing, they said.

“The end of Khun Sa does not mean a magic wand has been waved,” Richard Dickins of the U. N. Drug Control Program said.

This year’s crop is being harvested in the remote hills of northeast Myanmar’s Shan state, and Khun Sa’s surrender is unlikely to prevent it from reaching market, he said.