Burma is also the 2nd largest supplier of opium (following Afghanistan) in the world, with 95% of opium grown in Shan State.[46][47] Illegal narcotics have generated $1 to $2 billion USD in exports annually, with estimates of 40% of the country's foreign exchange coming from drugs.[43][48] Efforts to eradicate opium cultivation have pushed many ethnic rebel groups, including the United Wa State Army and the Kokang to diversify into methamphetamine production.
Prior to the 1980s, heroin was typically transported from Burma to Thailand, before being trafficked by sea to Hong Kong, which was and still remains the major transit point at which heroin enters the international market. Now, drug trafficking has circumvented to southern China (from Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong) because of a growing market for drugs in China, before reaching Hong Kong.[49]
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