Drug Control: U.S. Heroin Control Efforts in Southeast Asia

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