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In Myanmar, home to 50 million people of numerous ethnicities, is located in South-East Asia. The country shares its borders with Thailand, Lao PDR, China, India and Bangladesh, and has a long shoreline along the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Despite a rich endowment
 of natural resources and high potential for growth, Myanmar lags behind its neighbours in economic development and is classified as a least-developed country. Significantly, poverty has a direct link with drug production and consumption in the country, as farmers rely on the cash crop to have access to food and basic needs.
After Afghanistan, Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of opium, the raw base material of heroin. However, over the past decade, a series of drug control policies and opium bans by the authorities have led to a reduction of opium cultivation in the country. While these policies have created opportunities that have led to significant reductions in national and regional production of heroin, farmers who had previously relied on opium cultivation to feed their families and meet their basic human needs have had to rely on emergency assistance from international sources to overcome economic dislocations caused by the opium bans.
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