Efforts to Control Heroin

U.S. funding of heroin control efforts accounts for a small portion of the overall international drug control budget. However, the United States faces the following significant obstacles in implementing this approach:
Since 1988, the United States has not provided direct counternarcotics assistance to Burma because of its record of human rights abuses and its refusal to yield control of the country to a democratically elected government. Much of Burma’s opium-producing region is not under the effective control of the Burmese government. The impact of U.S. regional interdiction efforts to date has been limited by the ability of traffickers to shift their routes into countries with inadequate law enforcement capability and by poor law enforcement cooperation between the United States and China. Although some U.S. programs in countries such as Thailand and Hong Kong that possess the political will and capability to engage in counternarcotics activities have achieved positive results, the problems in Burma have limited the progress in the region. From Southeast Asia, heroin is transported to the United States primarily by ethnic Chinese and West African drug-trafficking organizations. However, we found that the projects have not significantly reduced opium production because (1) the scope of the projects has been too small, (2) the Burmese government has not provided sufficient support to ensure project success, and (3) inadequate planning has reduced project effectiveness.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO discussed U.S. efforts to control heroin trafficking from Southeast Asia to the United States.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) U.S. efforts have achieved some positive results in Thailand and Hong Kong, but not in Burma; (2) the United States has supported United Nations (UN) drug control projects in Burma, but these efforts have met with limited success because the projects' scope has been small, planning has been inadequate, and Burma has not provided sufficient support; (3) the United States suspended direct counternarcotics assistance to Burma because of human rights violations; (4) much of Burma's heroin-producing region is not under government control because of insurgencies headed by drug traffickers; (5) law enforcement efforts against heroin traffickers are impeded by the traffickers' ability to shift transportation routes to countries with inadequate law enforcement capabilities; and (6) U.S. heroin control efforts are also impeded by a lack of cooperation with China on counternarcotics activities.