Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)

The Golden Triangle is a mountainous border region of roughly 200,000 square kilometers where northeastern Myanmar, northern Thailand, and northern Laos meet at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. Since the 1950s it has been one of the largest opium producing areas in the world, and for decades most of the world's heroin originated there, though Afghanistan overtook it as the leading source in the early twenty first century. Myanmar remained the second largest opium producer after Afghanistan through 2022, and became the leading producer again in 2023 after Taliban enforcement sharply reduced Afghan poppy cultivation. On the Thai side of the river confluence, the town of Sop Ruak has been redeveloped as a tourist destination with museums and parks, and no opium is grown there today.