It would be good to see a high quality analysis of the two health problems: alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder in Myanmar.
If most of the alcohol that the young drink is 'illegally distilled' then what are the authorities going to do about it? Harry banned tobacco advertising with one stroke of his pen. Alcohol control is going to be much more complicated.
Comments?
Jamie
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Alcohol and drug addiction surging among those in their 20s in Myanmar
Myanmar Eleven
Asia News Network
October 15, 2014 1:00 am
Doctors at Yangon Mental Hospital say they are seeing a rise in the number patients in their 20s who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and this along with anecdotal and other evidence indicates that alcohol and drug addiction use is surging among those in their 20s as well as among teenagers.
The warning was made at seminar in Nay Pyi Taw during which public health experts and officials sought to draft new guidelines and strategies to control the distribution, advertising and consumption of alcohol.
"Now, even teenagers have started drinking [alcohol] and some will become addicts in their 20s. It's the same with drugs," said Dr Win Aung Myint, a mental health specialist at the hospital. "This is why we are seeing a rise in mental illness," he added.
As much as 70 per cent of the alcohol consumed by youths was illegally distilled.
Win Aung Myint also said methamphetamine had replaced heroin as the greatest threat. Instead of injected heroin, youths are now smoking methamphetamine pills, which are easier to obtain and more popular than heroin because they do not have to be injected and their effect is more appealing, he said. "Heroin makes users drowsy while methamphetamine makes them feel more energetic, so young people are choosing methamphetamine pills," he explained.
The price of the pills differs based on their type, but the average street price in Yangon is about 5,000 kyats (Bt160) per pill, researchers say.
10 per cent women
According to arrest and treatment records, about 10 per cent of methamphetamine users are women, according to Dr Hla Htay, project manager of the National Drug Abuse Control Programme.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says 10 per cent of the world's opium comes from Myanmar, the second largest producer of the drug after Afghanistan. The best estimate for 2013 opium production in Myanmar alone is some 870 tonnes, the highest since assessments by UNODC and the government began in 2002. In June, the Myanmar government destroyed US$138.17 million (Bt4.4 billion) worth of drugs to mark the UN's "International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Traffficking".
On alcohol consumption, Myanmar lacks nationwide data. However, according a 2008 rapid assessment by the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health in Yangon, Taunggyi and Mawlamyine, 19-24 per cent of drinkers surveyed were "problem users".
The warnings come as global beer and liquor manufacturers expand their presence in what one international analyst described as "one of the last remaining virgin markets for growth". Jeremy Cunnington, an alcoholic-drinks analyst at Euromonitor, was also quoted in local media as saying that for global manufacturers there were "very few opportunities to expand and grow" and that "Myanmar is one of those opportunities".
Public health experts in Myanmar, however, say the lack of enforced regulations on advertising, distribution and sale of alcohol can leave youths vulnerable to the industrial drive now underway to increase sales of beer and alcohol in the country.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Alcohol-and-drug-addiction-surging-among-those-in--30245505.html
