Illegal drugs are used by some 200 million people worldwide and represent a retail market of about US$320 billion, making narcotics use a "monster" of a problem to combat, the UN said yesterday in its 2005 World Drug Report.
"This is not a small enemy against which we struggle. It is a monster," Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said in the annual report.
The US$320 billion retail market is "larger than the individual gross domestic products [GDPs] of nearly 90 percent of the countries of the world," Costa said, adding that there were "few dimensions of human security that are not affected in some way by the illicit drug market."
The number of drug addicts rose by eight percent in one year, owing mainly to the rising popularity of cannabis, the report said.
Cannabis is the most widely produced, trafficked and consumed narcotic worldwide with some 160 million users in 2003, up by 10 million from the previous year.
Production of the drug rose sharply from 2002 to 2003, to 40,000 tonnes, and "all indicators ... suggest that the market at the global level is expanding further."
Five percent of the world's population, or 200 million people, aged 15 to 64 has used narcotics at least once in the past 12 months. That figure is 15 million higher than last year's estimate, the report said.
Statistical analysis suggests that overall drug consumption continues to spread at the global level.
But while more countries report a rise in drug use than a decline, the proportions "have shifted in recent years in a slightly more positive direction."
In 2003, 44 percent of countries reported rising drug use, compared to 53 percent in 2000. Those reporting declines rose from 21 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2003.
Amphetamine-type stimulants, including ecstasy, were used by 34 million people in 2003, down from 38 million the previous year, a drop attributed to the dismantling of a number of large laboratories in Thailand in 2002 and a decline in the use of ecstasy in the US.
However, opiate and cocaine use rose slightly to 16 million and 14 million people respectively.
The biggest problem worldwide from a health perspective continues to be opiates (opium, heroin and morphine), followed by cocaine. For most of Europe and Asia, opiates account for 62 percent of all treatment demands in 2003.
In South America, drug treatment demand is mainly linked to cocaine abuse, representing 59 percent.
The study also showed that while cocaine-abuse treatment has declined in North America, cannabis and amphetamine treatment has risen.
Meanwhile, world production of opium rose slightly last year to 4,850 tonnes, despite a drop in Laos and Myanmar.
The rise was mainly caused by an increase in production in Afghanistan, which accounts for 87 percent of the world market three years after the fall of the Taliban regime, which had almost wiped out production.
On an optimistic note, the report said that opium production in Southeast Asia was now 78 percent lower than it was in 1996.
"If the declines witnessed over the last few years are sustained, it would not be too far outside the realm of possibility that Southeast Asia could become virtually free of illicit cultivation over the next few years," the report said.
However, for cocaine, global production remained stable last year at 687 tonnes, after a trend towards lower production in recent years that has led to a 26 percent drop since 1999.
Coca-cultivation areas increased in both Bolivia and Peru, the report said.
"This is a worrying loss of momentum for both countries, which had already made significant progress to curb coca production," it said, urging the international community to continue to support alternative livelihoods programs to lure producers away from the trade.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in