03/03/2024
Bangladesh’s drug problem is deep-rooted:
Bangladesh and soon became popular in urban and rural areas. It was the most prevalent drug until 2000, alongside he**in. The synthetic drug yaba entered from Myanmar and injectables from India around the same time and became popular, surpassing he**in and phensedyl.
While the media often focused on small-time dealers and destitute addicts, others pointed fingers at the relatively affluent, including college females. During that time, it was reported that female university students were increasingly engaging in opportunistic s*x work to finance their drug habits and live fashionably. Those women were negatively influenced by female flatmates or male students.
An alarming shift
Law enforcement officials busted the first m**h lab in Bangladesh in Dhaka’s Jigatola in 2018. Three years later, police arrested three private university students in possession of 200 L*D blotting papers.
In January this year, the DNC seized 8.3 kilograms of co***ne, the largest consignment seized in Bangladesh’s history since 2013, from the capital's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Methamphetamine pills, or yaba, are the most frequently used and widely seized amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) in Bangladesh, with significant seizures since 2008. This crazy medicine is a cheap, potent, and highly addictive synthetic drug. Most of the Yaba labs are located in Shan and Kachin states along the Myanmar-China
In 2018, the Narcotics Control Act was amended with a provision for a death sentence or life-term imprisonment as punishment for producing, trading, and using 200 grams or more of Yaba or more than 25 grams of he**in and co***ne.
In December last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Myanmar is now the world’s largest o***m producer, surpassing Afghanistan, where the Taliban imposed a ban on its production in April last year, leading to a 95% fall in cultivation.
The area under o***m cultivation in 2023 is estimated to have been 47,100 hectares, up from 40,100 the previous year, while the corresponding yield is estimated to have been 1,080 tons, or 36% higher than the 2022 estimate.