A group of Pakistani drug addicts squats inthe basement of a building in Rawalpindi on the outskirts of the capitalIslamabad. AFP (File Photo)
VIENNA,June 26: Some 27 million people worldwide are problem drug users, with almostone per cent every year dying from narcotics abuse, while cannabis remains themost popular drug, a UN report showed on Tuesday.
Heroin,cocaine and other drugs continue to kill around 200,000 people a year,shattering families and bringing misery to thousands of other people,insecurity and the spread of HIV, director Yury Fedotov said as he presentedthe 2012 World Drug Report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Globalproduction and use of illegal drugs remained relatively stable last year, thereport found.
However,this masked shifts in trafficking and consumption that were significant andalso worrying because they are proof of the resilience and adaptability ofillicit drug suppliers and users, the UNODC warned.
Cannabisremained the most widely used drug with up to 224 million users worldwide,although production figures were hard to obtain, the agency said.
Europewas the biggest market for cannabis resin, most of it coming from Morocco,although Afghanistan is becoming a major supplier and domestic production inEurope is also rising, the UNODC said.
MostEuropean Union member states (are) reporting the cultivation of cannabis herbto be a phenomenon that appears to be on the increase, the report added,noting the increasing involvement of organized crime.
Opiumproduction in Afghanistan, the worlds biggest producer with 90 per cent of theglobal share, meanwhile jumped by 61 per cent in 2011 to 5,800 tons from 3,600 tonsin 2010, when the crop was hit by disease.
InSoutheast Asia as well, cultivating opium was increasingly popular, expandingby 16 per cent in 2011, with Myanmar still the second largest producer behindAfghanistan.
Onlya small share of this made it to Europe and North America, where opiate use wasstable or dropping. Instead, 70 per cent of users were in Africa and Asia, thereport found.
Cocaineuse too was stagnating or falling in Europe and North America, but this wasoffset by growing use in South America and Australia, as well as parts ofAfrica and Asia.
Syntheticdrugs including methamphetamine and ecstasy pills were meanwhile on theincrease, with a recent hike in seizures pointing to the drugs continuedpopularity, the UNODC said.
Some230 million people, or five percent of the global population aged 15-64, usedillegal drugs at least once in 2010, the last year for which data wasavailable, the report found.
Asgrowth in use shifts increasingly from developed to developing countries, UNODCdirector Yuri Fedotov appealed for more help to newly-affected nations,ill-equipped to fight this problem. Drug use has also been spilling more intocountries along trafficking routes, such as Iran or parts of western andcentral Africa, the office noted.
TheUNODC estimated the financial cost of drug use at about $200 billion to $250bnto cover drug treatment worldwide, a far cry from the sums currently provided.AFP
