IN THIS STORY:
>History of the drug trade
>On our shores
>Addressing the threat
>Slowing the epidemic

Printable version

Throughout 2002, government officials, tourism-dependent businesses, and ordinary citizens across East Asia watched in despair as a wave of terrorism shattered the region's relative calm, driving away travelers and investors. Explosions rocked the southern Philippines and metropolitan Manila, killing Filipinos and at least one U.S soldier. Philippine intelligence linked these bombings to militant groups with ties to al-Qaeda. In October 2002, the massive bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed at least 200 people, served notice that terrorism had become a major threat to the region's stability.

Even as terrorism frightens the region, an equally menacing threat looms on the horizon, a danger that has the potential to do more damage than even Islamic militancy. During the past five years, a newly available illicit drug, a methamphetamine and caffeine based stimulant nicknamed yaba (pronounced yar-bah and meaning "crazy drug," "crazy pill," or "crazy medicine" in Thai), has swept through Asia. Yaba, which can be more addictive than heroin and can be eaten, injected, or smoked, has contributed to East Asia's skyrocketing HIV rates and has caused other potentially catastrophic problems.

Now yaba has crossed the Pacific and arrived in America, where it has won over young adults and demonstrated the potential to cause harm nationwide. The American military and allies in East Asia and even China have begun to fight the world's latest drug war, taking on yaba traffickers, countries that provide havens for amphetamine production, and corrupt law enforcement officials. Unfortunately, their efforts may be in vain. Yaba already may be too well established, and some of the strategies employed by America and its allies may prove counterproductive.

History of the drug trade
Drug production and use are not new in East Asia. Arab traders introduced opium to Asia around A.D. 400. By the late 1800s, opium had become the biggest export of British India, and roughly 100 million Chinese, or almost one-fifth of the population, smoked the drug. Thousands of opium dens sprung up in Shanghai, China; Bangkok, Thailand; and other large Asian cities. By the early 20th century, most Asian cities contained a population of heroin users.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Asia began to curtail opium and heroin use through highly repressive measures employed against addicts and traffickers. During the early 1990s, the flow of heroin from Burma to Thailand decreased, and Thailand began to view opium as a relic of the past. The northern Thai city of Chiang Rai City even opened a museum dedicated to the history of the opium trade. 

Now, a combination of factors has led to a general East Asian drug resurgence and an amphetamine epidemic. Since the late 1990s, border customs between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors have been liberalized, and nations in the region have upgraded their road and rail links. Now, travelers -- both legal merchants and peddlers of illicit drugs -- move from Burma to China to Thailand with ease. 

At the same time, the Burmese government has signed ceasefire agreements with armed ethnic minority groups in recent years. As part of the ceasefires, several groups essentially have been allowed to manufacture amphetamines at will, and they have become the world's main producers.

"The Burmese junta has made a devil's bargain -- peace in ethnic areas in return for basically legalized drug trafficking," says one Burma specialist.

Most notably, Rangoon's military regime has allowed the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic Wa group with 20,000 well-armed troops, to establish hundreds of amphetamine laboratories near the Thai and Chinese borders. Today, the UWSA dominates the global yaba market and is considered among the largest armed narcotic-trafficking organizations in the world.

These trends have fostered yaba's extraordinarily rapid spread throughout East Asia. Although there has been some speculation that yaba is the same amphetamine-based mixture the Nazi's developed to keep soldiers awake and alert for days on end during World War II, many believe the drug was invented less than 10 years ago. Adding to it's heightened availability is its ease of production, as it can be manufactured in small labs using a minimum of equipment. Since the drug is synthetic, it is not affected by changes in the weather. UWSA chemists can make thousands of yaba tablets in makeshift laboratories along the Thai and Chinese borders, with a minimal investment. The pills are the size of a pencil eraser, so tiny traffickers can easily smuggle thousands of the tablets across the porous, 1,200-mile Thai-Burmese border. What's more, since yaba is so easy to make, it can be sold to a wide socioeconomic range of users -- one pill costs just 60 baht ($1.50) in Bangkok. 

Despite the low price, yaba delivers a potent high. The amphetamine makes users feel intensely alert and cheerful. Addicts have said it provides a nonstop orgasmic feeling. Unfortunately, yaba also can cause psychosis, suicidal tendencies, hallucinogenic episodes, extremely violent behavior, and intense psychological addiction.

The spread of yaba has been one of the fastest-growing drug epidemics the world has ever seen. Since 1998, the Thai government has reported a tenfold increase in yaba consumption. All sectors of Thai society have been affected. Truck drivers, rich businesspeople, and even Buddhist monks have become yaba addicts. One Bangkok research center estimated yaba abuse costs Thailand more than $2 billion per year in lost productivity. (Thai religious experts estimate 10 percent of the country's Buddhist monks are addicted to drugs.)

The story is similar in other East Asian nations. Yaba has become the most popular drug in the Philippines and is gaining ground in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Burma, Australia, and Singapore, with Singaporean police making twice as many arrests for yaba in 2002 than in 2001.

Continued>>