The Golden Triangle: Regional Approach Opium Eradication and Narcotraffic Control
The "Golden Triangle" -- a term used to refer to the border region where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos meet in Southeast Asia -- has historically been a hotbed for the cultivation of opium poppies, the key component in heroin production. For decades drug traffickers were in control of the region, where borders were fuzzy and narcotics were easily smuggled into the hands of local users and the lucrative international drug market. In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to change due to international pressure and an increased concern for rural communities plagued by addiction and illicit crop-dependence. The Golden Triangle region has confronted the problem by significantly cutting back on cultivation, so much so that Laos, formerly the world's third largest opium producer after Afghanistan and Myanmar, declared itself poppy-free in February
2006.19
In Kunming, a Chinese city which borders the "Golden Triangle," recovering male drug addicts take part in a marchile drill while female addicts make small dolls as part of their rehabilitation program."
This monumental eradication effort has been successful for several reasons. According to Niklas Swanstrom, director of Silk Road Studies at Sweden's Uppsala University and expert on drugs and regional cooperation, the most effective way to tackle drug smuggling is to close down borders.20 When China realized that the Golden Triangle's illicit industry was infiltrating its territories, the government responded by sealing its border with Myanmar, a strategy that significantly reduced opium smuggling in the region. Another approach that is increasingly being accepted and encouraged by the UN and the region's national governments is alternative development, preferably implemented on a cross-border, regional basis. According to the terms outlined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this is a process that provides legal alternatives to communities dependent on income from unlawful activities.21 In the absence of initiatives that offer drug-cultivators (who are primarily impoverished farmers) alternatives for survival, narcotic crop eradication has the potential to devastate the livelihoods of entire communities. Recognizing this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China ratified the ACCORD Plan of Action in 2000 for a "drug-free ASEAN 2015," with the objective of introducing new alternatives to opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle area.22 The plan requires participating nations to practice regional cooperation by sharing information, techniques, and practices of sustainable opium eradication and alternative crop cultivation in order to more effectively create change and spark development throughout the region. The positive results of the program, which has been exemplified in the case of Laos and previously in Thailand, is evidence that alternative development is successful and should be applied to other parts of the world.
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Footnotes
19. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle: Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna, 2006:45, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
20. Gulnoza Saidazimova, "Central Asia: Experts Say Region Should Look to 'Golden Triangle' to Combat Drug Smuggling," Radio Free Europe (Jan. 31, 2005), http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/37d15755-5c22-4df6-a4a92ab9cc3ab944.html (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
21. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Alternative Development: A Global Thematic Evaluation. Final Synthesis Report. New York, 2005, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
22. ASEAN Secretariat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Towards a Drug Free ASEAN and China 2015: Assessing ACCORD Progress 2000-2005" (report from the project Regional Cooperative Mechanism to Monitor and Execute the ACCORD Plan of Action, Oct. 2005), http://www.accordplan.net/file/122005/16/Assessing%20
ACCORD%20Progress%202000-2005.pdf (accessed Oct. 30, 2006, link no longer available).