MYANMAR'S TOP EXPORT

SIR -- Your article on cocaine trafficking from Colombia ("new class of
trafficker", September 11th) is incorrect to claim that the majority of the
heroin consumed on America’s eastern seaboard originates in Colombia. Most
of the heroin used in America comes from Myanmar. The myth of large South
American opiate production is a result of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
narcotics surveying practices.

The DEA primarily focuses on cocaine and so is heavily staffed with
officers of Hispanic origin.

There are very few ethnic Asians among the staff so intelligence gathering
on ethnic-Chinese gangs is limited.

Generally, DEA drug buyers go to dealers who are Hispanic to purchase cocaine.

When they purchase heroin they invariably use the same dealers, so often
end up buying heroin of South American or Mexican origin.

As a result the purchases are not representative of the North American
heroin trade.

Seizure statistics are also skewed.

It is worth noting the statistics for 1996 in the DEA Drug Intelligence
Report (the last year available): 179 seizures and 155 purchases, too small
a sample-group from which to draw any reliable conclusions. Of the 1996 DEA
seizures sample, 67% originated from either South America or Mexico, while
only 17% came from South-East Asia. The statistics are not representative
of heroin imports and the DEA admitted as much in the report.

Every year the State Department Narcotics Bureau for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs states categorically that Myanmar is
by far the biggest source of heroin sold in America.

Even estimates of heroin use and addiction are open to question as they are
based on a household survey carried out in 1973, then adjusted according to
some formula that the DEA has never made public.

Hospital admissions due to heroin use increased from 42,000 in 1989 to
76,000 in 1995, an 80% increase, and that excludes the mid-to-late 1990s
explosion in recreational heroin use.

Bruce Hawke
Bangkok