Myanmar: UN: 'Poverty and corruption' fueling Myanmar's opium woes

Jun 27, 2014 | Gabriel Dominguez, Deutsche Welle
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Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of opium - the raw ingredient for heroin - after Afghanistan, accounting for 10 percent of global production. Together they account for about 90 percent of the world's opium poppy production, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Despite a state eradication campaign, the Southeast Asian nation - also known as Burma - witnessed an increase in opium cultivation for the seventh consecutive year. As a result the country's opium production increased 26 percent last year to an estimated 870 tonnes - the highest since assessments by UNODC and the Myanmar government began in 2002.