Price of Opium Soaring

Price of Opium Soaring

The price of opium, fresh from the field in Pangpi, Mongpan Township, is currently fetching B. 24,000 per viss at Nakawngmu, Mongton Township, reported Maihoong from southern Shan State. 

"Last year, it went up to K. 180,000 (about B. 20,000 at unofficial exchange rate)", said sources to Maihoong. "The government claims it was because of their anti-drugs efforts. That wasn't so. It was actually, first, the weather and, second, the heroin operators were scrambling over each other to stock their refineries". 

Sources also said the unprecedented cold weather during the last weeks of December destroyed many poppy plants. "It means the price may go even higher", one said. 

It was also reported that Shan Nationalities People's Liberation Organization (SNPLO), a Pa-O ceasefire group, has become the biggest producer of heroin in the south. "In the north, it is Kokang who are becoming bigger than the Was, because of the latter's submission to anti-drug programs forced by China. Nowadays, the Was are growing poppies outside the Wa region. So the total output is not going to change much unless it is because of the weather".