The Facts
A UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released on Friday states that the synthetic drug trade in East and Southeast Asia is expanding, with ketamine production rising and new trafficking routes for methamphetamine emerging.
The research — which drew on critical indicators such as arrests, purity, and prices to assert that the supply has remained high — found that meth seizures fell back to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 as international drug syndicates began reconnecting after border closures and travel restrictions started lifting.
The Spin
Narrative A
Despite being a formidable challenge to interrupt the transnational drug trade in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, local authorities have experienced some success in tackling trafficking and other crimes due to information sharing and cross-border cooperation with the support of the United Nations. There is a long way to achieve this goal, but international collaboration is vital to stopping drug trafficking.
Narrative B
The current drug smuggling situation in Southeast Asia is a direct consequence of the complicity of state actors, local and foreign. The Golden Triangle has become a hotbed of drugs due to the US backing anti-communist rebel groups involved in the drug trade in the region during the Cold War and China ignoring Myanmar's active and direct role in facilitating an illicit business.
