CAIRO: While global markets for cocaine, heroin and cannabis have declined or remained stable, the production and abuse of prescription opioids and new synthetic drugs are on the rise, according to a United Nations report. Globally, some 210 million people, or 4.8 percent of the population aged 15-64, used illicit substances at least once last year, concluded the UN World Drug Report 2011 released on Thursday. Overall drug use, including problem drug use (0.6 percent of the population aged 15-64), remained stable, found the report. “Drugs cause some 200,000 deaths a year. Since people with serious drug problems provide the bulk of drug demand, treating this problem is one of the best ways of shrinking the market,” said Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov. Cannabis, which is known as marijuana, remains by far the most widely produced and consumed illicit substance globally, although data on cannabis are limited. In 2009, between 2.8 percent and 4.5 percent of the world's population aged 15-64 (between 125 and 203 million people) used cannabis at least once. Illicit drug production in Africa is mainly focused on cannabis. While cannabis resin is mainly produced in Morocco, cannabis herb is produced all over Africa. The report states that small-scale opium production is limited to countries in North Africa, notably Egypt, which regularly reports the largest eradication of opium poppy among all countries on the continent. Amphetamine-type Stimulants (ATS) manufacturing appears to be emerging in some African countries. For some time, methamphetamine and methcathinone production has been taking place in South Africa, basically for domestic use. Similarly, Egypt has reported clandestine manufacture of ATS for some years, where the production takes place at low levels and is intended for the domestic market, according to the report. In contrast, recent reports of shipments of metham-phetamine from countries in West Africa, notably Nigeria, to various destinations in East and South-East Asia is an international concern, and suggest that a more professional ATS production has been emerging in West Africa. Some equipment and chemicals seized in Guinea in 2010 might indicate possible ATS manufacturing there. While cannabis herb production is widespread, notably in the Americas and Africa, cannabis resin production ‘hashish' continues to be concentrated in just two countries: Morocco, supplying the West European and North African markets, and Afghanistan, supplying the markets in South-West Asia. Cannabis resin was a far more profitable crop than opium poppy in 2010 in Afghanistan. Fedotov, stressed the principle of ‘shared responsibility' and the need to build national, regional and international efforts in a comprehensive strategy on the cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs. UNODC has spearheaded a number of regional mechanisms to confront the problem of Afghan opium, including the Paris Pact, the Triangular Initiative and the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Center. These approaches could be models for other regions, such as South-East Asia or Central America, he said at the launch of the report in the UN headquarters in New York City. In 2009, UN member states reaffirmed the validity of the international drug control regime during the High-Level Segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. “This year is the 50th anniversary of the keystone of the international drug control system: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Its provisions remain sound and highly relevant, as does its central focus on the protection of health,” noted Fedotov.
