Patrick Winn is an award-winning investigative journalist who covers rebellion and black markets in Southeast Asia. He tells the stories that you might not hear about in the west, or on mainstream news channels.
Winn has received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a National Press Club award. He’s also a three-time winner of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Press Awards - amongst other prizes.
After watching the Netflix show 'The Business of Drugs', I was extremely interested in learning more about the meth trade in Myanmar. Patrick, who is a long time investigative reporter in the region, was featured on the show. I reached out to him, wanting to get a better understanding of the players in the region, why Myanmar is such a huge meth producer and distributor, and why this region is so infrequently reported on.
Often times, especially in the US, there is a very US-specific prism that we view current world affairs through. It was refreshing to get "outside" insight from Patrick, who has been in Thailand for many years, has learned the language, embedded himself in the culture, and has a very clear understanding of geopolitics, drugs, and journalism in the region.
Myanmar is currently the world's biggest meth producer. With the country's rampant corruption, heavily armed militias, and hard to access rainforests, it's a perfect storm, for lack of a better term, that has enabled criminals (and/or people who are just trying to survive) means to easily ramp up drug production.
Patrick and I discuss what some solutions to the drug epidemic could be, the harsh penalties most Asian countries have for drug offenders, what led him to cover the drug trade in Asia, the current media landscape, compassion, his documentaries, and much more.
Enjoy The Episode!
My Take - Drugs are not going away anytime soon. Governments have spent billions trying to eradicate it, to no avail. The more they try, the more the trade seems to take on steam. Just like cigarettes and alcohol - and partially marijuana - perhaps it is time to set up some system of legalization for some other drugs as well. I'm not sure what the correct way to go about this is, but I do know that decades of a failed "war on drugs" has left many dead bodies, civil wars, billions in lost revenue and money spent - without making a dent in consumption.
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