World Drug Report 2023

World Drug Report 2023

• Released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
• Annual report since 1997, the same year the agency was established.
• Provides an annual overview of the major developments in drug markets for the various drug categories, ranging from production to trafficking, including development of new routes and modalities, as well as consumption.

Key findings :

• Increase in Drug use: In 2021, 1 / 17 people aged 15–64 in the world had used a drug.
•  last year, 23 percent more than a decade earlier.
  • Cannabis continues to be the most used drug in 2021. 
• Injecting drug use on rise:  2021 at 13.2 million, 18 percent higher than in 2020.
• Unavailability of pharmaceutical opioids:  86 % world’s population live without adequate access to pharmaceutical opioids for pain relief and care.
• Barriers to treatment:  39.5 million people suffering from drug use disorders, but only 1 in 5 people received drug treatment.

 Young people are more vulnerable: 

• Illicit opium production: The bulk production in a limited number of countries, notably in Afghanistan. Although the global area under opium poppy cultivation increased by more than 26 % from the previous year, global opium production declined marginally (3%) over the same period. This was due to less opium being produced in Afghanistan (10 %) as a consequence of droughts in early 2022.

 Drug Trafficking in Indian Ocean 

• Drug production impacting Indian Ocean states takes place in two main regions: the “Golden Crescent”, comprising illicit opium production areas in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the “Golden Triangle”, the second largest opium production region in the world, covering Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. 
• While heroin produced in the Golden Crescent is trafficked through the Southern Route, drug production in the Golden Triangle has shifted to methamphetamines, including Yaba, a highly addictive pill that combines methamphetamines and caffeine, smuggled into South and Southeast Asian countries. 
• Yaba has become widely popular in Bangladesh, where the drug is trafficked into the country through the Naf River, a fluvial bordering area with Myanmar.

Practice Questions for Prelims

Consider the following statements:
1. The World Drug Report is released by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime biannually.
2. The Headquarters of  UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is in Vienna, Austria.

Which of the above given statements is/are correct?
a) Only 1
b) Only 2
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans. b)

Mains Practice Question

Discuss the problem of cross border drug business in India? How it is threat to Indian security?

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