The opium poppy that had long blossomed in picturesque profusion across the mountains of northern Laos and the Wa region of Myanmar has, in recent years of zealous drug eradication campaigns, become a rarer sight.
But United Nations drug experts warn that poppy cultivation is resurgent in Myanmar and Laos, as poverty-stricken former poppy farmers face further pain amid the global economic crisis. The combination of events threatens substantial gains made in opium eradication since 2002 in the area known as the Golden Triangle.
Leik Boonwaat, the chief UN representative in Vientiane, said: 'The price of opium has more than doubled in the past few years in Myanmar and Laos. Former opium farmers who already live in dire poverty are facing twin levers of increasing opium prices and falling commodity prices that may encourage them to resume poppy growing.'
Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries, proudly proclaimed itself 'opium-free' in 2005 as a result of heavy pressure from western governments and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), linking economic aid to the suppression of the poppy fields.
The Wa region has had a ban on opium production since 2006.
