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The Latest Breaking News from UNODC

There has been a sharp rise in the number of people taking illegal drugs globally over the past decade as “increasingly agile trafficking networks are compounding intersecting global crises”.

The Week

UN anti-drug agency warns there is no let-up in methamphetamine trade from Asia's Golden Triangle

The United Nations anti-drug agency is warning that the huge trade in illegal drugs such as methamphetamine from Southeast Asia's ‘Golden Triangle’ shows no signs of slowing down

The Independent UK

UN says organised crime shifting drugs routes in Southeast Asia

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says almost 151 tonnes of methamphetamine seized in Southeast, East Asia in 2022.

Al Jazeera

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No alternative: Afghan farmers lament Taliban poppy ban

Lashkar Gah (Afghanistan) (AFP) - In a secluded compound in south Afghanistan, Bibi Hazrato cries in dismay as a group of men hack down her poppy crop, enforcing a Taliban government order to wean the nation off the narcotic plant.

AFP

Two Rights Groups: Iran Executions Surge in Bid to 'Spread Fear'

Two rights groups revealed on Thursday that Iran is using death penalty as an “execution machine” aimed at spreading fear as protests shook the country in 2022. According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France's Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), Iran hanged 75 percent more people in 2022…

Asharq Al-Awsat

Cocaine production hits record high as post-Covid demand picks up in Europe

Global production of cocaine has jumped dramatically over the past two years following an initial slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the first report dedicated to the global cocaine market from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

France 24

Cocaine smuggling and production at record high since pandemic retreat

New UN report says there has been a 35% spike in 2020-21 in the production of coca, the drug’s base ingredient

The Guardian - US

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‘Tip of the spear’: Battling the Golden Triangle’s drug lords

A low-intensity but bloody battle is being fought to contain the flow of drugs from Southeast Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’.

Al Jazeera

Q&A: The opium surge in Southeast Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’

The revival of opium production in the Golden Triangle comes on top of a booming synthetic drug industry.

Al Jazeera

Despite the Taliban's pledge to eradicate opium, the poppy trade still flourishes in Afghanistan

The Taliban have always had a complicated relationship with the opium trade. As a narcotic, opium is haram, or forbidden under Islamic law. But at the same time opium production has tended to increase in areas they have controlled, where local leaders reportedly raise money to fund their operations by…

The Conversation

Russian soldiers must be on drugs to commit 'very violent acts' seen in Ukraine

Kamran Niaz, an epidemiologist for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), tells The Mirror how the horrors seen in Bucha, Kherson and Kharkiv can't be carried out by people with a "normal mindset"

Daily Mirror

Myanmar opium farming booming after coup: UN

Bangkok (AFP) - Opium poppy production in Myanmar ramped up dramatically following the 2021 military coup, the UN's drugs office said Thursday, as political and economic turmoil drove farmers to cultivate the crop.

AFP

Myanmar opium cultivation surging under military rule: UN report

Opium cultivation in military-ruled Myanmar jumped 33% last year, reversing a six-year downward trend in the strife-torn country, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

Bangkok Post

Myanmar opium cultivation surging under military rule - UN report

Opium cultivation in military-ruled Myanmar jumped 33% last year, reversing a six-year downward trend in the strife-torn country, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

Reuters

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Al Jazeera

Opium cultivation surges since Myanmar military seized power: UN

Opium poppy was cultivated on more than 40,000 hectares in Myanmar last year, a 33 percent increase compared with 2021.

Reuters

COVID-19 cut known human trafficking, but Ukraine war a risk: U.N

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the first drop in the known number of human-trafficking victims in 20 years as trafficking opportunities and policing were reduced, but the Ukraine war has probably now caused a new surge, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera

Thai army kills 5 suspected drug smugglers near ‘Golden Triangle’

Almost 500,000 methamphetamine pills found after clash between Thai forces and suspected smugglers in Thailand’s north.

Radio France Internationale

Substance abuse among India's youth hits emergency levels

India officially has 15.8 million children between the ages of 10 and 17 who are addicted to drugs. Experts warn that the true number is far higher. The National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre has called for an urgent reaction to a crisis situation.

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Reuters

Colombia's oil theft soars, leaving trail of environmental harm

In a clearing of Colombia's Pacific jungle, the dense canopy encircles an area of desolation left by a clandestine refinery, where oil waste blackens everything underfoot, seeping into the soil and coating the vegetation.

AFP

Inside the 'living hell' of Cambodia's scam operations

Sihanoukville (Cambodia) (AFP) - Trafficked, beaten and locked up far from his family in China, Lu was one of thousands of people in Cambodia forced to operate online scams to line their captors' pockets.

Bangkok Post

Speed pill prices fall to B2 each

Methamphetamine pills, which cost as much as 300 baht apiece in Thailand just a few years ago, can now be had for as little as two baht each, say police who arrested a drug suspect in Lop Buri.

The Guardian - UK

Ethiopians found in Malawi mass grave thought to have suffocated

Bodies tentatively identified as adults being secretly transported to South Africa on perilous ‘southern route’

Reuters

Colombia's potential cocaine production at record high, U.N. says

Potential production of cocaine in Colombia and the area sown with coca, the drug's base ingredient, rose last year to their highest levels in two decades of monitoring, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Thursday.

The Street

Cannabis News Week: World Consumed More Weed During the Pandemic

The annual UNODC World Drug Report has a bunch of nuggets about cannabis consumption, including the fact that there are 209 million global cannabis users.

Benzinga

UN Report: Cannabis Legalization & COVID Lockdowns Boosted Daily Use, More Potent Weed & Psychiatric Disorders

Legalization of cannabis usually leads to higher rates of daily marijuana consumption and consequently various health impacts, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s World Drug Report 2022,

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