Life is composed of many binary couplets: light and dark, rich and poor and most predominately in our world, good and evil. The drug situation in Shan state and how it is perceived in such contrast by the outside world is no exception. The people making the drugs are viewed as bad, and those trying to circumvent the drug manufacturing are good. A place that grows, manufactures and transports narcotics must be, to many people, a dark place where illicit dealings, shady characters and evil intentions dominate. Yet the current drug situation in Shan state is more complicated and demands closer inspection. It is naive to look at the issue through such a high contrast lens. There is much grey area in the drug trade in Burma. A symphony of economic drives, political forces and societal hardships account for much of the misrepresentation of drugs in the Shan state. This paper hopes to explore causes of the drug trade in Shan State within the context of its political unrest.  My ambition in this report is to enlighten those curious about the drug trade in Burma.  I hope to dispel the current global perception of Shan State’s drug trade as a venture purely for profit. There are many factors, both regional and global, that contribute to the drug trade. The most important factor however, is the ethnic conflict and how it correlates to the dark economy.

Burmese heroine Aung San Suu Kyi has come to represent freedom from oppression for Burmese people.  Aung San Suu Kyi’s relatively recent release from house arrest and the participation once again of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in politics has ignited international interest in the once forsaken Burmese nation.  With the light shining on Aung Sa Suu Kyi and the recent US presidential visit to the country, the world is now watching a long overdue Burma in redux.  With the stage set for democratic reform, international journalists are now allowed limited access to previously unattainable information.  This offers the global media an inside look at the country once shut off from the world.  News from Burma reveals a country in despair; it is a country in desperate need of economic, political and social reform. The poor education system, the near non-existent health care system and other mismanaged public services have led to a country in dire need of change. The current government in the new capitol of Naypyitaw is taking minute steps toward reforms. These steps however, are often in the wrong direction. A more direct way is to address the twin issues of political unrest in the country and its connection to the drug trade. Outsiders frequently regard the drug problem in Burma as a periphery issue; it is however, at the heart of the turmoil.  Politics and the drug trade are interwoven. They cannot be separated. The underground drug trade is ripe with governmental corruption and is used as a tool to finance ethnic independence movements.

Read more: Shedding Light onto the Drug Trade in Shan State.pdf