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For decades, opium production has been dropping in Thailand, with widespread eradication drives and campaigns to encourage farmers to plant other crops.

But recently Thai authorities reported that in 2007, opium poppy cultivation had increased by 47 per cent.

Across the border in Myanmar, opium production was also up by similar levels.

Meanwhile, the Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand appear to be building an increasingly lucrative trade in methamphetamines.

With Thailand's government launching a new campaign 'to free the country from drugs', 101 East asks if Thailand can ever win the war against the drug barons.

Joining host Teymoor Nabili to discuss the issue are Pithaya Jinawat, the deputy secretary general of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board, Kraisak Choonhavan, a Thai opposition MP, and Akira Fujino, the East Asia and the Pacific Representative of the United Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime.

This episode of 101 East aired on Thursday, May 12, 2008.