Due to loosened oversight fueled by COVID-19 restrictions, the production and trafficking of narcotic drugs may have increased across the world. The confiscation of the largest synthetic opioid supply in Shan State, Burma, on record in Southeast Asia in May 2020, for instance, has triggered concern for the international community. The production of methamphetamines, which have been gaining market share for years, is not dependent on the opium poppy crops, but rather only on laboratories, which can be made mobile and moved if necessary. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is highly lethal with a strength 50 times that of heroin and up to 100 times more potent than morphine. Such potency worsens an already large drugproblem. And the drug problem will only increase if any civilian part of the government, now the National League for Democracy (NLD) under the 2008 Constitution, keeps only carrying out tasks in accordance with the drug control policies and the laws amended in 2018.

Narcotic drugs are commonly perceived as a hazard to all of humanity, and the use of narcotics is normally prohibited by governments. However, narcotic drug users are increasing by the millions every year. This situation indicates that policies, laws and enforcements conducted by various governments, the successive Myanmar military governments at the top, are not effectively moving toward the drug-free world agreed upon in the United Nations (UN) Conference on narcotic drugs.

This paper attempts to address the interconnection between narcotic drug eradication and peace seeking process by invoking the minimum standards of the Rule of Law while analyzing respective laws and legal frameworks on narcotic drugs with a special focus on the status of the United Wa State Party (UWSP).