Asia drug boom fuels surge in opium cultivation
- Published: 31 Oct 2012 at 15.27
- Online news: Asia
BANGKOK - Opium cultivation in Southeast Asia has doubled over the last six years as growing demand for heroin in China and the rest of Asia lures more farmers to grow poppies, the UN said on Wednesday.
An undated handout picture, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on 31 October 2012, shows a worker holding collected resin from opium buds, in a poppy field in the hills of north Shan State, Myanmar. (EPA Photo/UNODC)
China alone has more than a million registered heroin users, and consumes most of the drug in the region, it said.
This article is older than 60 days, which we reserve for our premium members only.You can subscribe to our premium member subscription, here.
