-57-
THAILAND
Summary: The Royal Thai Government (RTG) continues to eradicate opium and marijuana at an acceptable pace. Once again, this year there was a decrease in the acreage planted in opium poppy. Credible data on marijuana production and eradication are not available although marijuana eradication has apparently increased. The best evidence of
The best evidence of the impact of the Thai program is demonstrated by marijuana farmers themselves, as they disperse and develop new methods of cultivating marijuana in
marijuana in an effort to escape the attention of Thai eradication forces. Thailand continues to cooperate with the U.S. in a range of interdiction and enforcement activities and turns in an impressive set of annual statistics in terms of arrests and
and seizures of illicit narcotics moving through Thai territory. Nevertheless, a number of problems continue to interfere with more effective narcotics enforcement, including endemic corruption and the lack of legislative tools such as effective conspiracy legislation and laws authorizing the seizure of assets
assets gained through narcotics trafficking. The RTG remains committed to meeting international responsibilities for narcotics control and to a continuing close working relationship with the U.S. in seeking mutually acceptable solutions to
the problems of international narcotics trafficking. End summary.
The results of the opium survey for the 1986-87 season are now available and reveal a small, but significant, decrease in acreage planted during the most recent year over what was planted in the previous year. A total of 4,130 hectares was planted in opium in 1986-87
as compared to 4,539 hectares planted in the 1985-86 season. This represents a decrease in area of nine percent.
However, the yield per acre was up and the acreage planted would have produced 26.7 tons of opium, a six percent decrease compared to the 1985-86 season. These are pre-eradication figures and are not weighted to include the results of eradication. Since the Royal Thai Army considerably expanded its eradication effort this last year, we assume the actual production decreased more than six percent.
The nine percent reduction in acreage is not as impressive as the 53
53 percent reduction in acreage which was obtained between the 1984-85
1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons. This suggests that the Thai crop control program has reached a point of diminishing returns and that further reductions will be more difficult to achieve in the future. Nevertheless, the RTG remains committed to terminating opium cultivation in Thailand in the shortest time frame possible and the Royal Thai Army has now institutionalized the annual eradication campaign.