UN: 27 million problem drug users worldwide

poledriver

poledriver

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UN: 27 million problem drug users worldwide

A new United Nations report estimates about five per cent of the world's population has used an illicit drug, and 27 million are described as problem drug users.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has released its annual World Drug Report.

It reveals that almost one per cent of problem drug users die every year from narcotics abuse, while cannabis remains the most popular drug.

In Southeast Asia, cultivating opium is increasingly popular, expanding by 16 per cent in 2011, with Burma still the second largest producer behind Afghanistan.

Gary Lewis from the UNODC's regional representative for East Asia says the Greater Mekong region - China, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand - has also seen a spike in the use of certain drugs.

"Overall we see increases in almost all of those countries in the use of crystal meth, which is a problem you have also in Australia," he told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program.

"You have almost a universally increased consumption base in all of those six countries for methamphetamine.

"With regard to the historical drug of use, heroin, that's more uneven. It tends to be consumed more largely in Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.

"And in China the consumption of heroin is increasing."

Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer with 90 per cent of the global share

Opium production in Afghanistan jumped by 61 percent in 2011 to 5,800 tonnes from 3,600 tonnes in 2010, when the crop was hit by disease.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-27/an-27-million-problem-drug-users-worldwide-un/4095916
 
so basically less than %0.045 of the human population is a "problematic drug user" and less than one percent of those people die from their "problematic" drug use.

How is any intelligible person able to look at these statistics and agree that the current laws are necessary from protecting %0.045 of the population from themselves.

Compare the amount of people who weren't "problematic" users with the amount of people whose lives had serious problems created for them by drug laws and its easy to see what the problem is. Its the laws, not the drugs, that are ravaging our society and harming our children and blah blah blah.

Fuck the US and every country that agrees with these laws (Uruguay your awesome<3) and once again,

Fuck the US
 
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I can't believe only 5% of the world population take drugs. It's more around 15-20% in my opinion.

Of course I don't have the numbers to back up that claim, but I'm suspecting the UN of coarse falsification.

My 2 cents.
 
loulou reed said:
I can't believe only 5% of the world population take drugs. It's more around 15-20% in my opinion.

Of course I don't have the numbers to back up that claim, but I'm suspecting the UN of coarse falsification.
Click to expand...

China

MANY Chinese people, but very few illegal drug users.
 
I see. Isn't China the first RC producer worldwide? This is terrifying...
 
These statistics are only for illicit drug use. How much would the numbers change if they included the abuse of prescription drugs because the USA has a huge problem with the abuse of prescribed opiates etc which then leads people to try heroin for example.
 
Yeah, add in scripts and alcohol and we're talking serious numbers.

Why the UN thinks this number has any fucking significance whatsoever without the inclusion of scripts and alcohol baffles me.

If we, as a world community, are going to combat the tragedies and lost dreams from drug use, we need to consider it all.

And what about the number-laden, alphabet soup of RCs people are asking about, abusing, and having bad experiences with here?
 
lol @ 5%. There is little anyone could say to convince me that only 1 in 20 people around the world have tried marijuana.
 
27 million? That is a tragedy on a grand scale. Yet, the US continues to fight this stupid "War on Drugs".
 
I personally think marijuana and MDMA should be legalized and sold the way alcohol and tobacco are. Problems arise when the question of legalizing drugs like cocaine, amphetamines, and opioids come into the discussion. I just don't see how these drugs can be legalized - first, you'll have the pharmaceutical companies waging war to prevent any sort of legalization of any opioid or amphetamine (money is their god). And legalizing cocaine (which means crack) would just not sit well with most people.

But I believe marijuana and MDMA are good candidates for legalization.

The only way to go with the heroin/opioids, cocaine, and amphetamines is decriminalization.
 
The UN ought to focus on how many starving people we have in the world that need food & not worry about who wants to use drugs.......
 
^ Drug addicts are sick people that need as much attention and help. There's been some progress made over the past 30 years (as far as the availability of rehab facilities, increased attention to the problem, the realization that addiction is a disease, etc), but it is still not enough and there is still a long road ahead. The plight of addicts cannot simply be overlooked. We aren't just "people who want to use drugs" - we are sick people that require a lot of help. Our disease is chronic. The UN can do both - help addicts and help the starving.
 
So? That doesn't mean our issue doesn't require serious attention from the world. Millions of people die of our disease and the "War on Drugs" is not the way to go about it. Putting sick people in jails for scoring their fix is not the way it should be.
 
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