Counternarcotics and Law Enforcement Country Program: Laos

Problem

With the return of large-scale opium production in Afghanistan in 2002, Laos reverted to its previous position as the third-largest producer of illicit opium. Opium is generally grown in remote, mountainous areas largely populated by ethnic minority groups which have traditionally resisted the imposition of central authority. According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) figures, cultivation was down 14% in 2001, and potential production was down to 112 metric tons. Laos also serves as a transit route for Burmese drugs going to China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and beyond and is increasingly coming under siege by drug traffickers. Seizures of opium and heroin decreased markedly from 2001; however, methamphetamines seizures -- a growing problem in Laos -- were up in 2002.

U.S. Counternarcotics Goals

• Increase drug enforcement efforts to combat production and trafficking of heroin, opium, and methamphetamine;

• Build Lao capacity to reduce opium production and narcotics refining; and

• Strengthen Lao capacity to effectively reduce drug demand, particularly of methamphetamines.

The United States has also begun a new program to assist Laos in drug demand reduction. INL will build opium and methamphetamine treatment clinics, and is working with UNODC and various NGO's to design "capacity building" programs for both drug treatment and the training of treatment workers.