LECEIVED IN
REGISTRY. No, “O
INTRODUCTION TO
7 MAR 1975
PROJNUT QULLISES (Prelininesy)
COMPROBIZAIN
The political, social und eronomio correlates of opium prodretion and trading in Shan State.
Tho Shan State of Burma produces a third of the world's illicit opium, and over the last 10 years United Nations and various goveranent agencies have tried, and failed, to sten the flow of narcotics from this
part of the world.
Their failure is, at least partially, due to the almost total lack of research into the Shan opium problem.
What information there is dates from pre-1940, Since then there has been little research of any type carried out in Shan State, and (with one exception) no outsiders have been into the Shan opium region since the civil disorders began in 1962. In addition, what research there has been on related subjects in cimiler arcas such as Northern Laos and Thailand has not been presented in a form applicable to Shan State. And data collected by official agencies has almost always been orientated towards law enforcement and has sometimes been influenced by political considera- tions. (e.g. the repeated U.S. Narcotics Bureau allegation during the 1950's that the Peoples Republic of China was yearly exporting 1000 tons of opium through Shan Stato.)
In the short torm, this lack of information has had a direct and sometimes unfortunate effect on policy decisions. Presumably the United States government would not have supported research into the breeding and distribution of a weevil destructive to poppies if it had been aware that this could have meant starvation for thousands of tribespeople in the Wah and Kokang areas of Shan Stato. And the policy of pre-emptive buying would probably not have been rejected on the basis that if you double the price you double the production, if it had been known that among certain tribes prodic- tion probably decreases with a price increase, and that among most other tribes production rises very slowly.
In the long term it is generally agreed that the opium problem can only be solved by a programme of crop replacement, and valuable agricultural rosearch has already been done on this subject by the United Nations project in Northern Thailand. Relatively little anthropological research has been carried out, however, to test the acceptability of these crops among the different tribes in Northern Thailand, and there has been no attempt to project conclusions from this research into the ruch more important opivn area of Shan State. In addition, there has been no attempt to plan for Shan State a wider programme of economic and social developcat without which crop replacement would be impossible.