Bangkok - Supply and demand for amphetamine-type drugs is climbing rapidly in South-East and East Asia with potentially fearful consequences, a UN report released in Bangkok Thursday said. Gary Lewis, regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said production and sale of methamphetamines, crystal meth and similar substances was increasing rapidly, while trade in heroin and cocaine seemed to remain steady or even decrease.
"It is quite alarming. The social and economic consequences are real and dangerous. We also know that drug crime spills over in to many other crimes," Lewis said.
The tremendous increase in supply was generating its own demand from users who may appreciate its stimulative effects at a time when lifestyles and work generally become faster and more competitive, he added.
A total of 31 million methamphetamine pills were seized in the region in 2008, against 25 million discovered in 2007, said the UNODC's 2009 Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants and Other drugs in East and South-East Asia report.
The number of arrests linked to amphetamines had doubled by 2008, compared to four years earlier.
Thailand remains the epicentre of the trade in meth pills with Cambodia, Japan, Korea, Laos and Brunei also experiencing strong increases in the illicit trade.
Although an increasing number of industrial-sized laboratories had been dismantled in recent years suppliers have proven inventive in hiding fresh drug factories and in finding new supply routes, the report added.
The region may become a global manufacturing centre for these drugs, especially in countries like Malaysia where discovered production facilities seem to far outstrip rising local demand.
China remains the dominate producer of underground synthetic drugs with 75 manufacturing plants smashed in 2007, although production in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia also increased the report said.
The disputed Golden Triangle region of north-eastern Myanmar remains a major location for producers who are protected by or work for drug gangs and armed ethnic minority armies with drug factories located even in urban areas, Lewis said.
The UN reported earlier this year that while production of cocaine and heroin dropped in 2008, production and consumption of synthetic drugs like amphetamines was increasing strongly.
