Greater Mekong Subregion

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Workshop Dealing with the Drug (Opium) Problem in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is Held Under the Auspices of ADB (August 2001)

The Workshop on Drug Control Initiatives in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) was held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China (PRC) on 14-15 August 2001. The Workshop was held as part of the ADB-funded Small Scale Technical Assistance for Drug Eradication (RETA 5970) which was approved on 21 December 2000. The RETA is the first such project for ADB that directly addresses the drug problem on a regional basis. The Workshop aimed to identify the best practices in demand reduction and alternative development in the region, to develop project concepts with regional/cross border themes and to foster networking among GMS countries. The TA focused on PRC, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand, which are geographically contiguous and whose opium related problems have clear cross border and regional dimensions. Representatives of all six GMS countries, UNDCP and ESCAP, NGOs, and bilateral development organizations, attended the Workshop.

The GMS is a major source of opium production in the world, and trafficking in the subregion, as well as usage of opium and heroin particularly by ethnic minorities, is a serious issue in the GMS. A regional approach to the problem was envisioned because the drug problem has increasingly become a regional issue with the opening of borders and improvement of transport infrastructure. Also, regional cooperation complements national efforts, particularly in the sharing of ideas concerning best practices and cost-effective interventions. A key finding of the Workshop is that the opium/heroin problem is a development challenge with numerous cross cutting issues, such as governance, ethnic minorities, and HIV/AIDS, among others. Opium is grown in the GMS on a large scale because it is a high value, low weight cash crop, which does not require extensive marketing. Alternative development therefore must provide basic physical infrastructure as well as micro or community level interventions. Another emerging problem is the abuse of amphetamine type substances (ATS), which similarly has extensive region wide implications, but pose different challenges in terms of production, marketing and use.

The Workshop was successful in highlighting best practices in demand reduction and alternative development and building up in-house capacity to design appropriate interventions. The Workshop was also effective in promoting understanding within the region as well as between the ADB and other agencies engaged in the drug problem. Subsequent steps will involve the completion of the comprehensive paper on drug control. ADB will further examine how best to use remaining funds under the present TA and will examine the merits of various projects which have been proposed during the Workshop.

For the entire proceedings, email: gms@adb.org

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