A recent article published by The Telegraph and authored by Tom Parry examined the prevalence of yaba use in Bangladesh and the factors contributing to its spread, including its low cost, easy availability, and trafficking from Myanmar. Yaba is an illicit stimulant drug that typically contains methamphetamine and caffeine compressed into a small tablet. It originated in Southeast Asia and is particularly prevalent in countries including Myanmar, Thailand, and Bangladesh.
Some of the effects of consuming yaba include increased energy, prolonged wakefulness, and feelings of enhanced capability. Moreover, reported adverse effects of yaba use include sleep deprivation, appetite suppression, aggression, anxiety, depression, psychotic symptoms, cardiovascular complications, family and social dysfunction, and increased risk of polysubstance use.
The article included several interviews with patients receiving detoxification and rehabilitation treatment at the Central Drug Addiction Treatment Centre in Dhaka. One of the interviewees, a young man called “Shafi”, said he was introduced to yaba by his uncle, who imported bricks of 10,000 pills into Bangladesh from Myanmar. “At my worst, I went for seven whole days with no sleep,” he said. “At that point, I was so mentally unstable. […] To compensate, I would take heroin. I was stuck in this cycle all the time – one day yaba, one day heroin. I would also take fentanyl and morphine, whatever I could get hold of.” According to Shafi, yaba is cheap, easily available, and has penetrated every level of the society in Dhaka, from the slums to the wealthy neighbourhoods.
“Yaba has destroyed our social architecture,” said Dr. Mohammed Rahanul Islam, the Centre’s resident psychiatrist. “We are in a position akin to China in the 1840s, before the opium wars. In rural areas, illegal money and power is linked in with yaba.” There have been multiple reported cases of young people becoming dependent on yaba and suffering strokes.
Despite ongoing enforcement efforts in Bangladesh, the production of yaba remains widespread. Large quantities of the drug continue to be manufactured in remote areas of Myanmar, particularly in militia-controlled regions of Shan State, where production sites are difficult to monitor. As authorities dismantle individual operations, new facilities frequently emerge to replace them.
“The reason yaba has become so prevalent here is that it is so easy to transport and far cheaper to buy than other drugs,” said Adnan Zobayer, a psychiatric social worker for the Bangladesh Government’s Department of Narcotics Control. “People get an easy buzz and quickly become dependent. When you start one yaba pill can keep you going for a week but that soon increases to three or four. It’s when people are addicted that they develop anxiety, schizophrenia, depression and personality disorders. The number of users keeps increasing, and the majority of them are teenagers.”
