New data on opium and methamphetamine production in Myanmar from the United Nations puts the war-torn country at the epicenter of Asia's multi-billion-dollar illicit drug trade. Opium poppy cultivation rose 17% to over 53,000 hectares (131,000 acres) over the past year, the most in a decade, according to the latest opium survey of Myanmar by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), published this week. Most notably, Myanmar is still the world's top opium producer. The country claimed that spot from Afghanistan in 2023, two years after the Taliban seized control of the country and eradicated the vast majority of its poppy fields. Data published by the UNODC earlier this year also show methamphetamine seizures across East and Southeast Asia in 2024 hitting a record 236 tons. Most of

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