Thailand burned almost 3 tonnes of drugs worth about US$105 million yesterday to mark the UN day against drug abuse and trafficking, while Myanmar burned illegal drugs worth US$272.5 million.
Thailand's haul of methamphetamines, heroin, opium, ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana was set ablaze in an environmentally friendly incinerator in the central province of Ayutthaya, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
"Thailand is seriously cracking down on drugs in order to overcome the drug problem and reduce drug addiction and its consequences," Deputy Health Minister Morakot Kornkasem said at the ceremony.
Morakot said Thailand would focus on preventing chemicals used to make drugs from being smuggled into the kingdom, and on rehabilitation of addicts.
The destroyed drugs came from 12,672 resolved court cases, the FDA said, and most of them were methamphetamines.
In Myanmar, more than 4 tonnes of opium and 4 million tablets of methamphetamines as well as drug-making chemicals were torched in a ceremony in Shan state, home to some of the country's most prolific drugs traffickers.
"Being aware of the menace of drugs to mankind, Myanmar has not spared any efforts to totally eradicate the problem from the face of the earth, by using all means -- even sacrificing lives," national police chief Khin Yee said.
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