The United Nations sounded the alarm today over record seizures of methamphetamine, with the drug flooding streets and clubs in Asia and enticing a new generation of users.
Last year 227 million methamphetamine pills were seized in East and Southeast Asia, up 59 per cent from the year before, and a more than seven-fold increase compared with 2008, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
"If you look at the five year trends, since 2008 the seizures have increased pretty exponentially," said UNODC regional analyst Shawn Kelley, with data suggesting the trend continued into 2013.
He said the "huge spike" was due to increased efforts by law enforcement agencies as well as soaring production in Myanmar and an increase in the smuggling of drugs into Asia from other regions.
Seizures of potent crystal meth also increased, jumping 12-fold in Myanmar, 10-fold in Brunei, 91 percent in Hong Kong, 75 percent in both Indonesia and Cambodia, and 33 percent in Japan.
Methamphetamine can be ingested, smoked, snorted and injected.
In its pill form, known in Thailand as "yaba", which means "crazy medicine" it is used both as a party drug and pick-me-up for low paid workers with long hours.
Prices range from USD 3 a pill in Laos up to USD 20 in Singapore.
In China, methamphetamine is the second most popular drug of choice among the country's more than two million registered users, after heroin.
It is ranked as the top drug of concern in Japan, where an estimated 0.2 per cent of secondary school students have used meth, according to one government survey.
Between them China, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos seized 99 percent of all yaba in East and Southeast Asia last year, according to the UNODC report.
All of those countries showed significant increases on a year earlier, with Thai authorities netting 95.3 million pills, a 93 per cent increase while Chinese seizures rose 25 per cent to 102.2 million, and Myanmar's more than tripled to 18.2 million.
Much of the methamphetamine seized in Thailand is thought to be produced in neighbouring Myanmar.
Before the country began opening up to the world under a new reformist government in 2011, it was believed that rebels were increasing drug production to buy weapons amid tensions with the then-ruling junta.
