By Xinhua,
Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar : The Myanmar authorities seized 103.8 kg heroin and 1,690 kg opium in one year and a half from January 2007 to June 2008, according to a latest figures disclosed at a ceremony in Nay Pyi Taw Thursday to mark this year’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
A total of 2,462 drug-related cases were exposed and 3,298 offenders were taken action in 2007, the figures showed.
In the first quarter of this year, 626 such cases were exposed with 628 offenders punished, the statistics indicated.
Meanwhile, In the 2007-08 poppy cultivation season, 4,821 hectares of poppy plantations in the country were destroyed.
The opium cultivation in Myanmar dramatically decreased from 140,000 hectares to 27,700 hectares in a decade ending 2007, according to Thursday’s message of Home Minister Major-General Maung Oo on the occasion of the international day.
The number of drug addicts has reduced from 61,455 in 2005 to 54,709 in January 2008, statistics showed.
Myanmar’s 15-year drug eradication plan, which started in 1999-2000, has reached the 4th year of the second five-year plan.
The country is striving for the realization of its target to become poppy-free nation by 2014.
So far, Myanmar declared three regions of Mongla, Kokang and Waas poppy-free zones in 1997, 2003 and 2005 respectively.