UN report says global drug use is shifting to synthetic drugs

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) — World drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets and there are signs of growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants and prescription drugs around the world, according to the World Drug Report 2010 released on Wednesday.

The report shows that the world’s supply of the two main problem drugs – opiates and cocaine – keeps declining and that the world’s cocaine production has declined by 12 to 18 percent over the period from 2007 to 2009.

The World Drug Report 2010 shows that in the past few years cocaine consumption has fallen significantly in the United States, where the retail value of cocaine declined by about two thirds in the 1990s and by about one quarter in the past decade.

But the problem has moved across the Atlantic: in the last decade, the number of cocaine users in Europe has doubled, from 2 million in 1998 to 4.1 million in 2008. By 2008, the European market ($34 billion) was almost as valuable as the North American market ($37 billion).

Globally, the number of people using amphetamine-type stimulants – estimated at around 30 to 40 million – is soon likely to exceed the number of opiate and cocaine users combined. There is also evidence of increasing abuse of prescription drugs.

The number of clandestine laboratories involved in the manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants is reported to have increased by 20 percent in 2008.

The report says while drug-related violence in Mexico receives considerable attention, the northern triangle of Central America, consisting of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, is even more seriously affected, with murder rates much higher than in Mexico.

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