Myanmar authorities burned illegal narcotics worth over $642 million across the country on Sunday, to mark the annual International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Confiscated drugs like heroin, cannabis, methamphetamine, and ketamine, along with seized chemicals used for synthetic drug production were destroyed in Hlang Tharyar township in the greater Yangon area. Similar destruction ceremonies occurred Sunday in Mandalay and Taunggyi.

Myanmar is one of the largest manufacturers of narcotics, much of which is produced in border regions outside the military government's control.

Lt. Gen. Soe Htut, the Home Affairs minister of Myanmar's ruling military council, in his capacity as Chairman of Central Committee on Drug Abuse Control, emphasized in his message read during the ceremony that Myanmar faces a new challenge of synthetic drugs being produced using precursor chemicals, after seeing a drop in the cultivation and production of the opium poppy.