United Nations report released on Sunday shows that the demand and supply of cocaine are rising globally, and the trafficking of methamphetamine is reaching new markets, including Afghanistan, where the substance is currently being produced.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stated in its yearly World Drug Report that cocaine bush cultivation and overall cocaine production reached record highs in 2021, the most recent year for which data are available, and that cocaine use worldwide, estimated at 22 million that same year, is steadily increasing.
However, cocaine seizures have increased more quickly than production, which has partially constrained the total supply, according to the report. In the middle of the 2000s, the estimated total supply’s top band was higher than it is today.
The UNODC research stated that there is currently “an extended surge in both supply and demand of cocaine, which is now felt throughout the world and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond the traditional confines.”
“Although the global cocaine market remains concentrated in the Americas, Western and Central Europe, and South-Eastern Europe (with a very high prevalence also in Australia), in relative terms it appears that the fastest growth, albeit building on very low initial levels, is occurring in developing markets found in Africa, Asia, and South-Eastern Europe,” it said.
While East and Southeast Asia and North America accounted for about 90% of the methamphetamine captured globally, seizure data indicate that those markets have stabilized at a high level while trafficking has expanded in other areas, such as the Middle East and West Africa.
It went on to say that reports and seizures of methamphetamine made in Afghanistan revealed that the drug trade in that nation, which produces 80% of the world’s illicit opium poppies used to make heroin, was shifting.
There are still uncertainties about the connections between the illicit production of heroin and methamphetamine in Afghanistan, as well as whether the two markets will grow concurrently or if one will eventually replace the other.
