Cocaine, heroin supplies hit 'record highs' globally (UNODC World Drug Report 2018)

[S.J.B.]

Cocaine and heroin supplies hit 'record highs' globally
Rory Smith
CNN
June 26th, 2018

Cocaine supplies and heroin seizures have hit a record high, a new report finds.

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) on Tuesday.

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 United States.

Globally, deaths from drug use reached an estimated 450,000 in 2015. Nearly 40% of those deaths resulted from the direct result of drug use -- primarily overdoses from opioids. The remaining 60% 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 United States 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 finds.

Read the full story here.

Read the UNODC's World Drug Report 2018 here.

 

[S.J.B.]

The UNODC's World Drug Report is a tremendous piece of research. I highly recommend reading it annually!

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Good news. We are winning the drug war...when will they give up?

 

[S.J.B.]

While going through this year's World Drug Report I came across an excellent review on the availability of needle exchanges and opioid-substitution therapy around the world:

NSFW:

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

Good news. We are winning the drug war...when will they give up?

No one is winning the drug war, we are just losing lives instead of money

 

[ro4eva]

Should I be surprised to see Iran in the top right quadrant? Because I really am.

 

[MushroomRyder25]

Should I be surprised to see Iran in the top right quadrant? Because I really am.

I was gonna ask if I misunderstood the graphic because I noticed that too and wondered the same thing.

 

[S.J.B.]

I was gonna ask if I misunderstood the graphic because I noticed that too and wondered the same thing.

Nope, you both understood correctly. Iran has more needle-syringes given out than most of the world (although it still falls into the "low" coverage category) and it has the second-highest rate of opioid-substitution therapy. There's a huge discrepancy between how Iran treats drug dealers (death penalty) and addicts (relatively accessible treatment).

 

[LucidSDreamr]

No one is winning the drug war, we are just losing lives instead of money

True. I meant in the sense that drugs continue to become nor abundant and widespread throughout every demographic insociety and even worldwide.

They need to learn to deal with this as a health issue, not by throwing cops at the problem.

 

[BeachBum4u]

True. I meant in the sense that drugs continue to become nor abundant and widespread throughout every demographic insociety and even worldwide.

They need to learn to deal with this as a health issue, not by throwing cops at the problem.

A-Freaking-Men LSD!

 

[ro4eva]

Nope, you both understood correctly. Iran has more needle-syringes given out than most of the world (although it still falls into the "low" coverage category) and it has the second-highest rate of opioid-substitution therapy. There's a huge discrepancy between how Iran treats drug dealers (death penalty) and addicts (relatively accessible treatment).

That's very eyeopening. I wouldn't have thought... I'll just leave it at that.

 

[spacejunk]

iran's cultural history is fascinating - especially when it comes to drugs.

The UNODC's World Drug Report is a tremendous piece of research. I highly recommend reading it annually!

i used to work in a library where i was responsible for processing the subscription materials and academic journals that came in - which meant that i read everything interesting that passed over my desk throughout the day (which was substantial, because an awful lot of what we got in was interesting).
but the day UNODC's World Drug Report came in was always one of the highlights of my (work) year

 

[Tranced]

We actually have an Iranian poster who's spoken briefly about drug culture in Iran. It's quite interesting to see that it's not quite how it is when viewed through the filter of propaganda.