"The UNODC said that record amounts of tablets and crystal meth were seized across the region in 2018, and prices declined to levels last seen 20 years ago, indicating extremely high levels of availability. In Thailand alone, authorities seized 515 million meth tablets in 2018 – 17 times the total amount for the Mekong region a decade ago. Thailand also seized more than 18 tonnes of crystal meth, more than the East and Southeast Asia regional total of five years ago, according to a statement released on Friday at a ministerial meeting of the Mekong countries – Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The two-day meeting in Bangkok between the countries’ ministers and UNODC representatives was arranged following recurring reports of significant increases in the production, trafficking and use of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals across the region, and confirmation that major transnational organised crime syndicates have started operating in the so-called Golden Triangle, the lawless area where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet. The Golden Triangle has been associated with drug production and trafficking for several decades, but the level of synthetic drugs, in particular meth, being traced to the area is unprecedented..."