Cocaine and heroin supplies hit ‘record highs’ globally
Supplies of cocaine in 2016 and opium from 2016 to 2017 hit their highest ever recorded levels, according to the 2018 World Drug report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Non-medical use of prescription drugs, such as fentanyl, are also becoming a major threat to public health, increasingly contributing to overdose deaths, particularly in the US, CNN reported.
Globally, deaths from drug use reached an estimated 450,000 in 2015. Nearly 40 percent of those deaths resulted from the direct result of drug use — primarily overdoses from opioids. The remaining 60 percent of those deaths were attributable to the indirect use of drugs, such as HIV and Hepatitis C obtained from unsafe injections.
The report also found that fentanyl and its analogues remain particularly problematic in the US and Canada, while the use of non-medical tramadol — another type of opioid painkiller — is increasing in Asia and ‘soaring in parts of Africa’, the report found.
“Drug markets are expanding, with cocaine and opium production hitting absolute record highs, presenting multiple challenges on multiple fronts,” said UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov in a statement.
Thomas Pietschmann, a drug research expert at the UNODC, and one of the lead authors of the report said, “The real problematic issues for us have been the increase in opium production in Afghanistan and the massive increase in cocaine production, particularly because of Colombia.”
Around 275 million people worldwide aged 15-64 years used drugs at least once in 2016 — the latest year for which data is available.
Cannabis was the most widely used drug, with 192 million users, followed by opioids and amphetamines with 32 million users each, according to the report.
Surprisingly, drug use among older generations — those age 40 and above — is increasing at a faster rate than younger demographics. In the US, drug use among those 50 and older increased seven times between 1996 and 2016, said Pietschmann.
“Baby boomers are getting older and continuing to take drugs. We see this in Europe, the US, South America and Australia,” said Pietschmann, adding that they are not on the radar of most authorities worldwide looking at drug use.
The report also found that women — accounting for 33 percent of drug users — consume far less than men. However, once women begin consuming, they are much more likely to become drug dependent than men, the report said.