Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as top illicit opium source; NCB flags India risk

New Delhi: India's neighbour Myanmar is now the "world's leading source of illicit opium", having surpassed Afghanistan following the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation. Production has surged to a 10-year high, driven by the economic collapse and ongoing civil war following the 2021 military takeover. Shan state remains the epicentre of the country's total cultivation, according to the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) annual report released on Friday.

According to NCB, "The new opium trafficking corridor from Myanmar passes directly through India's northeastern states, posing a severe security risk to India, also linked with financing of terror and arms smuggling. The porous border and the Free Movement Regime facilitate trafficking, exacerbating local addiction and funding insurgent groups."

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The Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran corridor remains the world's primary opiate trafficking route, the report said. However, India faces strategic challenges from all major trafficking corridors, which require a coordinated response across enforcement domains. The report also warned that the surge in trafficking-related violence in cocaine transit countries shows how competition in drug markets can trigger a broader security crisis. It further said that India's maritime neighbourhood warrants "close monitoring."

The convergence of darknet markets, synthetic drugs and the international postal system has created a major enforcement challenge for law enforcement agencies worldwide, NCB observed. On global drug use, the report stated that as of 2023, an estimated 316 million people worldwide, i.e., around 6% of the global population aged 15 to 64, had used at least one drug in the past year. This represents a 29% increase from the 246 million reported in 2013. This outpaces global population growth over the same period.

Highlighting emerging threats, NCB said two classes demand "immediate global attention" which include ultra-potent synthetic opioids and drug-related violence. "Nitazenes (synthetic opioids), which are 500 times stronger than heroin, are emerging as a major global health threat. Parallel threats such as polydrug combinations signal a broader transition towards more lethal and unpredictable drug markets," the report said.

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The second threat is drug-related violence. Ecuador's homicide rate increased nearly six-fold between 2020 and 2023, driven by cocaine trafficking rivalry. Trends in the past have shown that drug abuse and crime are not isolated events anymore but reflect the violent consequences of a global market where supply has outpaced enforcement, the report said.

Encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal have emerged as significant channels for drug distribution globally, including in India, according to NCB.