The United Nations Calls The Cocaine Market Growing Rapidly, The Highest Production Record In 2021

Opium plants in Afghanistan. (Wikimedia Commons/davric)

JAKARTA - Demand and supply of cocaine are increasing rapidly around the world, while methamphetamine trading is widespread outside existing markets, including in Afghanistan where the drug is now being produced, according to a UN report on Sunday.

Farming of koka shrubs and total cocaine production hit record highs in 2021, the last year the data was available. Meanwhile, the number of global cocaine users is estimated to reach 22 million people in the same year and continues to grow, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual World Drug Report.

However, the seizure of cocaine grew faster than production, bringing the total supply to some extent, the report said. The upper limit of the estimated total supply was higher in the mid-2000s compared to today.

"The world is currently experiencing a prolonged surge in supply and demand for cocaine, which is now being felt around the world and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond traditional boundaries," the UNODC report said.

"Although global cocaine markets continue to be concentrated in America and in Western and Central Europe (with very high prevalence also in Australia), relatively it seems that the fastest growth, despite being built at a very low initial rate, is occurring in emerging markets found in Africa, Asia and Europe. Southeast," the report continued.

While nearly 90 percent of the metamphetamine seized worldwide are in two regions, East and Southeast Asia and North America, confiscation data shows the markets are stable at high levels, while trade is increasing elsewhere, such as the Middle East and West Africa, the report said.

The report added that reports and confiscations involving methamphetamine produced in Afghanistan show the drug economy's drug economy is changing in the country, where 80 percent of poppy opium is illegal in the world, which is used to make heroin, produced.

"There are still questions about the relationship between making heroin and methamphetamine illegally (in Afghanistan), and whether the two markets will develop in parallel or whether one will replace the other," he added.