Myanmar president calls for increased efforts on drug abuse control

YANGON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar President U Win Myint has called for putting more efforts in drug abuse control in the wake of increasing drug abuse ruining the lives of youths in the country, Myanmar News Agency reported Friday.

Work needs to be conducted according to the UN Convention and must be done in cooperation with UN member countries, international and regional organizations, local and international non-governmental organizations and the people, U Win Myint told the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) in Nay Pyi Taw Thursday.

He stressed the need to widely communicate the danger of drugs to the public and to conduct treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, adding that effective punishment must be made for planting, producing, possessing, transporting, distributing and trading drugs.

Myanmar has seen significant decrease in opium poppy cultivation in 2017 to 41,000 hectares which was 25 percent down from the 55,500 hectares recorded in 2015, according to the Myanmar Opium Survey 2017 launched by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the year-end in cooperation with Myanmar.

Myanmar's eastern Shan State topped the areas with a drop of 37 percent, followed by southern Shan state with a drop of 29 percent of opium poppy cultivation reduction, but there were less than 3 or 7 percent in conflicted areas such as Northern Shan state and Kachin state. Enditem