(26 Jun 2014) Several hundred kilos of seized narcotics were burned in Myanmar on Thursday, said to have a street value of more than 130 million US dollars.
Myanmar, the world's second largest producer of opium, held drug burning ceremonies in three major cities across the country to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Among the drugs burned in Yangon were 1.7 million methamphetamine tablets valued at 8.7 million US dollars.
All the drugs burned were seized between June 2013 and June 2014.
Myanmar holds drug burning ceremonies annually to show its commitment to drug elimination.
Lieutenant Colonel Win Naing, Deputy Chairman of Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, said at the ceremony that the deadline for totally eradicating drugs from the country had been put back five years to 2019 as more work needed to be done.
"Opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar in 2012 was 51,100 hectares and produced an estimated 690 tons of opium, according to UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) joint survey," he said.
Myanmar is the second largest producer of opium after Afghanistan, accounting for about 25 percent of global poppy production, according to the UN.
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