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NEWS - Foreign Nations Question Sup (r)



Subject: RE: NEWS - Foreign Nations Question Support for Myanmar's Opium B

attle
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On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Tony Albrecht wrote:

>        According a Washington Post story in mid-February in a "dramatic
> shift' Colombia seems to have replaced Burma as the major heroin
> supplier to the US. Colombia was the source of 75% of the heroin seized
> recently in the US 

Can you give a specific reference for these seizure figures?  Does the
article imply that seizure figures accurately reflect the proportion of
heroin on the street coming from various sources, or is that your own
interpretation?

> and  a combination of low price and high quality has
> increased the number of heroin users from 600,000 to 810,000 in the past
> three years . US-supplied airplanes and helicopters are now spraying
> poppy fields .in Colombia and the US gives Colombia $289million annually
> in anti-drug aid. 
>      Comment: With the US focussing on Colombia( and failing to attend
> the Interpol meetin in Rangoon) it makes sense for Thailand and Burma to
> take matters into their own hands and  sign a cooperation agreement on
> narcotics suppression. The inability to compete effectively with
> Colombia  in  the USmarket may account for the rise in amphetamine
> production in the Golden Triangle with nearby Thailand as the best
> market. 

An interesting theory.  Most analysts whose work I've reviewed suggest
that the amphetamine production is an entrepreneurial response to a new
potential market, not a forced change because a traditional market (i.e.
North America) is drying up.  Is your theory put forth by anyone else, or
it it your own?

> As in Colombia the problem for Thailand and Burma will be how to
> finance programs to help local farmers to grow alternative crops.
> Hopefully the UN can help. 

Is it the position of the US-ASEAN Business Council to support the
military junta in its drive to win counternarcotics aid?  Just hoping to
clarify the situation...

LD

PS, I'm looking forward to continuing our previous discussion about the
US-ASEAN Business Council's position on the HR situation in Burma.  You

wrote that it is "deplorable and worthy of condemnation" but never
responded when asked some specific questions to follow up.