{"id":646780,"date":"2019-06-28T14:59:13","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T14:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"
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Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) s"},"modified":"2019-06-28T14:59:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T14:59:13","slug":"unodc-world-cocaine-production-hits-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/28\/unodc-world-cocaine-production-hits-record-high\/","title":{"rendered":"UNODC: World cocaine production hits record high"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Wednesday that global cocaine production reached an all-time high in 2017, breaking the previous year\u2019s record by 25 percent.<\/p>\n

The agency identified Colombia as the world\u2019s top producer, accounting for an estimated 70 per cent of the world\u2019s cocaine.<\/p>\n

The agency said new remote fields and criminal gangs boosted production in the world\u2019s top supplier, despite efforts to steer rural communities away from coca cultivation following a peace deal with FARC rebels.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it\u2019s bad news every time. It\u2019s bad news for the producing countries\u2026 What is happening in Columbia is worrisome,\u201d said Angela Me, chief of research UNODC.<\/p>\n

In the decade to 2017, there was a 50 percent increase in manufacture, reaching a record 1,976 tons two years ago, according to the report, which bases its figures on national monitoring systems.<\/p>\n

Over the same 10-year period, the amount of cocaine seized worldwide rose by 74 percent.<\/p>\n

In 2017, authorities across the globe intercepted a record quantity of the drug: in all 1,275 tons were seized, up 13 percent year-on-year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests that law enforcement efforts have become more effective and that strengthened international cooperation may be helping to increase interception rates,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Almost 90 percent of seizures were in the Americas, with Colombia alone intercepting 38 percent of the global total in 2017.<\/p>\n

Cocaine production in some central areas of Colombia dropped following the 2016 peace deal with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as farmers were offered alternatives to growing coca bush.<\/p>\n

But the report said Colombia has since seen more coca cultivation, with new fields \u2014 often far away from major cities \u2014 being planted and criminal groups moving into areas previously controlled by the rebels.<\/p>\n

The report gave 2018 figures for global opium production, which had soared to a record in 2017.<\/p>\n

It said drought in Afghanistan had helped spur a drop in output by 25 percent to some 7,790 tons in 2018, adding that previous years\u2019 overproduction had likely also knocked prices.<\/p>\n

UNODC also sharply hiked its estimates of how many people suffer from drug use disorders and need treatment, after it ran surveys in populous India and Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Globally some 35 million people were affected in 2017, some 4.5 million people more than previously estimated, UNODC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot more people need treatment than we previously thought\u2026 Six out of seven don\u2019t receive the treatment they need,\u201d Me said, adding the organisation could revise its numbers again were it given access to data from China.<\/p>\n

North America\u2019s opioid crisis also reached new heights in 2017 with more than 47,000 opioid overdose deaths in the United States, the report said.<\/p>\n

UNODC estimates that there were 53.4 million opioid users worldwide in 2017, up 56 percent from the 2016 estimate due to the surveys from India and Nigeria.<\/p>\n

While fentanyl and its analogues remained the key problem in North America, tramadol is besetting West, Central and North Africa.<\/p>\n

Global seizures of the synthetic opioid surged from less than 10 kilogrammes in 2010 to almost nine tons in 2013 and a record 125 tons in 2017.<\/p>\n

Cannabis remains the most widely used drug worldwide with an estimated 188 million people using it, the report said.<\/p>\n

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