Status: 06/24/2021 1:23 p.m.
Global drug consumption continued to increase during the corona pandemic. According to a UN report, 275 million people used drugs last year. The cocaine trade is particularly flourishing – also in Europe.
According to a UN report, the corona crisis is driving more people to drug abuse. The pandemic has increased drug addiction factors such as inequality, poverty and mental health problems that are likely to worsen the situation “for years to come,” warns the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its 2021 World Drugs Report.
According to the UN report, the misuse of medication as a drug increased during the Corona crisis. The UNODC notes “that drug markets have resumed their activities quickly after the initial hiatus at the beginning of the pandemic”. As a result, around 275 million people worldwide used drugs last year, compared to 269 million in 2018.
In addition, most UN states have registered an increase in cannabis use. The risks of this drug, which do exist, are being assessed increasingly less anyway. With drugs that are “typically consumed in social contexts”, such as cocaine, however, consumption has decreased.
Illicit drug smuggling has increased
Because of the economic consequences of the pandemic, the illegal cultivation of heroin and cocaine raw materials, opium poppy and coca, threatens to increase. Afghanistan, from which more than 80 percent of the world’s opium poppy production comes, reported that the area used for the illegal cultivation of the drug raw material had grown by 37 percent in 2020.
Although international air traffic was largely paralyzed by the pandemic, international smuggling of illegal drugs continued to increase. Before the pandemic, global cocaine production had already increased significantly: it doubled between 2014 and 2019, reaching a new high of an estimated 1,784 tons. The distribution channels for cocaine deliveries to Europe were further expanded, according to the UNODC report. That led to the drug becoming cheaper.
Increased competition in the cocaine trade
Meanwhile, smaller gangs, including some from the Balkans, are increasingly involved in cocaine trafficking in Europe. According to the report, this has led to “increased competition and increased efficiency”. As a result of the changed trade routes and increasing competition, not only more, but also purer cocaine is coming to Europe. The drug’s purity has increased 40 percent over the past decade, according to UNODC.
For the World Drugs Report, the UNODC compiles its own information, information from the UN member states, publicly available analyzes and media reports.