
Myanmar has become the world’s top producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan in 2023, according to a new United Nations report.
The 95 percent decline in opium cultivation in Afghanistan after a drug ban by the Taliban in 2022 has seen global supply shift to Myanmar, where political, social and economic instability brought about by a 2021 coup drove many to poppy farming, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Tuesday.