Two new reports on the international drug plague agree that Asia is producing less opium and heroin, but add that the manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants or ATS is moving upwards rapidly.
The International Narcotics Control Board says the decline in Asia's opium output is occurring because production in Burma--the world's second largest cultivator of opium poppies-- has declined by two-thirds since 1996. And Laos, the world's number three producer, has also cut its output by half since 1998, largely to to increasing pressure from neighboring states threatened by the spread of heroin and methamphetamines.