Signal Southeast Asia records over 230 tons of methamphetamine seized in 2024

Summary

The Men's Wellbeing Initiative reports that Southeast Asia is facing a methamphetamine crisis of record scale. More than 230 tons of the drug were seized in the region in 2024. The Initiative attributes the surge to civil instability and to trafficking across borders. It describes a cycle in which addiction and economic insecurity reinforce each other, falling most heavily on young men in industrial areas and conflict zones. The case is one of several male-dominated crises in the Global South that the Initiative says Western frameworks fail to capture. It argues that responses must address the economic and safety conditions of these men, not only individual treatment.