YANGON, (PNA/Xinhua) — Myanmar will host the ASEAN drug meeting in Yangon from Sept.24 to 27, official media reported Saturday.
The meeting will be attended by high-ranking officials from the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN member countries, the representatives from ASEAN dialogue partner countries China, Japan, South Korea and India and high-ranking officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States of America, Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the New Light of Myanmar.
Opium production has increased in Myanmar year after year, prompting the government to take measures including educating poppy growers to stop production and undertake regional alternative development.
The government has added five years to its 15-year drug elimination plan (1999-2014), extending the plan up to 2019.
The government has been implementing alternative development projects in the areas of poppy, which were destroyed, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime ( UNODC) and the governments of Thailand and China.
In 2012, the government punished 5,740 offenders in connection with 4,006 drug-related cases.