Tracknum: .001001bf16c3.094c6aa0.1976fed1 Pubdate: 9-15 Oct 1999 Source: Economist, The (UK) Copyright: 1999 The Economist Newspaper Limited Contact: http://www.economist.com/ Author: Bruce Hawke 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