UN says amphetamines a major threat to Asia

A UN report on the illicit drug trade says political instability in military-ruled Myanmar has helped make it the major source of methamphetamine pills in the region.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report issued on Thursday in Bangkok that amphetamine-type stimulants have become the top illicit drug threat in several East and Southeast Asian countries,supplanting heroin,opium or marijuana.

Myanmar8217;s border areas are under loose central control,which let them become a major source for opium and its derivative,heroin. In the past decade,the area has become a source for methamphetamine production.

The report says a Myanmar government effort to reassert authority may have pushed traffickers to relocate their labs in neighbouring countries.