Law-enforcement agencies in South-East Asia have grown accustomed to breaking records. In almost every year between 2011 and 2020, the authorities seized more meth, as the drug is commonly known, than they had the year before. Between 2015 and 2019, the only other region to impound as much of the stuff as East and South-East Asia was North America though the overall volume of drugs flowing through Asia is probably greater, because authorities there are more corrupt and less well-equipped to intercept traffickers, says Jeremy Douglas of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (unodc), an un agency. And recorded seizures are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. Are the government officials behind drug trafficking ?

