The United Nations World Drug Report shows that the opium and coca markets flourished in 2015.
Global production of opium and coca increased sharply in 2015, according to the latest annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The document shows that the global drug market is “thriving” and “diversifying”. In fact, if recent news has been marked by the emergence of new synthetic drugs, traditional drugs – opioids and cocaine – have not stopped, far from it.
These drugs “remain very worrying”, we can read. Some 250 million people consumed them at least once in 2015. This represents 5% of the world’s adult population.
Increase in Afghan production
In 2016, global opium production increased by a third compared to the previous year, we learn. A phenomenon due to the increase in Afghan production and favored by better weather conditions. UNODC estimates that in 2016, the illicit trade in Afghan opiates brought in around $ 150 million in taxes on poppy cultivation and trafficking in opiates to armed groups.
However, world opium production of 6,380 tonnes is still around 20% below the peak reached in 2014, and is approaching the average value of the past five years.
American epidemic
Major opioid concerns are found in the United States. The quantity of heroin seized has “sharply increased in 2015”, according to the report which evokes a “real epidemic”. Almost a quarter of drug-related deaths worldwide occur in the country, and this mortality is mostly related to opiates. “Overdoses have more than tripled between 1999 and 2015, going from 16,849 to 52,404 per year”, we can read.
As for cocaine, the trend is also on the rise. After declining for a long time, coca cultivation increased by 30% between 2013 and 2015, mainly in Colombia, the world’s largest producer.
Consumption also seems to be increasing in the United States, as in Europe, where “analysis of wastewater in certain cities indicates an increase” of at least 30% between 2011 and 2016.
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