Drugs
Heroin shortage: warning of more dangerous alternatives
A used syringe, which is usually used for injecting heroin (symbol image). Photo
© Felix Zahn/dpa
The Taliban have imposed a ban on the cultivation of opium. Production has fallen drastically. But for experts, this is not only good news.
Because opium production in Afghanistan has collapsed, UN drug experts are concerned about new and dangerous alternative products. The UN Office for The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna is warning in particular about the synthetic heroin substitute Nitazen, which has already led to deaths in several European countries. On the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, the UNODC also pointed out the negative health effects of cocaine and cannabis in Western countries in its World Drug Report.
Afghanistan was long considered the most important source of opium, the heroin raw material extracted from the opium poppy. After the Islamist Taliban banned the cultivation of poppies in 2022, global opium production fell by 74 percent to just under 2,000 tons last year, the report said.
“The bottleneck will come”
So far, there is no evidence of a shortage of supply on the market, said UNODC expert Thomas Pietschmann. “The shortage will come. And then there could be a problem,” he warned. If heroin users are not provided with more medical alternatives in the event of a shortage, they could turn to illegal, synthetic substitute drugs such as nitazepine or fentanyl, the report said. These substances are more potent than heroin and therefore carry a higher risk of fatal overdose.
Deaths from Nitazen have already been recorded in Ireland, Great Britain and the Baltic States. The drug mostly comes from China. It is not sold as Nitazen, but is mixed with heroin and thus reaches the market, said UNODC chief analyst Angela Me.
292 million drug users worldwide
According to the UN Drug Agency, 292 million people worldwide use drugs, which is 20 percent more than ten years ago. The majority of users – 228 million – use cannabis. The World Drug Report mentioned legalization in Germany, but did not evaluate it. However, the UNODC pointed out that an estimated 41 percent of all drug addictions worldwide can be traced back to cannabis. The substance is the reason for 20 percent of drug treatments in Europe, the report said.
UNODC experts are also concerned about the impact of the cocaine boom. Production of the stimulant jumped by 20 percent to over 2,700 tons in 2022. More recent global figures are not available. “There is increasingly clear evidence of health damage caused by cocaine use, especially in Western and Central Europe,” the report said. The intensity of use, hospitalizations, the need for treatment and deaths have increased. Similar trends can be observed in countries in Africa and Asia. The UNODC stressed that the illegal drug trade not only endangers health but also the stability of states. The report referred to the increasing violence in Ecuador and the Caribbean related to cocaine. In the “Golden Triangle” between Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, drug traffickers are expanding into other business areas such as wildlife smuggling, financial fraud and illegal raw material extraction.