YABA

Yaba is a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine. They

are candy like tablets that come in different flavors, and bright
colors. Users typically heat the tablet, which sits on aluminum
foil, and then inhale the vapors from the melting tablets. Others
crush the tablets into powder and snort them.
The Bangladesh Border Guards are busting more and more
smugglers. They seized more than 29 million pills last year, more
than 35 times the amount confiscated in 2010, according to
figures from the Department of Narcotic Control.
"Myanmar is perceived to be the main country of origin for
methamphetamine tablets seized throughout the Mekong sub-
region and to some other parts of East and South-East Asia," said
a 2015 report by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime
(UNODC). The report added that, in 2013, 90% of the yaba pills
seized in China had originated as meth in Myanmar.
Didarul Alam Rashed runs a drug treatment center for two dozen
clients in Cox's Bazar near the border with Myanmar as part of
the Non-Governmental Organization for National Goals to be
Obtained and Retained (NONGOR). He has been in prime position
to witness the yaba increase.
"We did an informal survey in 2002 and found 20,000 people
were addicted to drugs in the district but none of them were
using yaba," he said, adding that their drugs of choice back then
were weed and heroin.
"In 2007 there was a flood of yaba and afterwards it was
everywhere. When we repeated our survey in 2016 we found
80,000 people were addicted to drugs and about 80% were using
yaba."