Laos Minister of Internal Security maintains there are no heroin or methamphetamine labs in Laos because Laos is a poor agricultural country with no means to produce chemical precursors needed to make drugs.
He acknowleges that Laos has increasingly become a transit route for drug trafficking in the region.
Laos is still the third largest opium producer in the world behind Burma and Afghanistan, despite significant decrease in opium cultivation due to long-time U.S. assistance. However, authorities insist Laos will be able to eradicate opium growth completely by the year 2005.