United Nations Radio

Although markets for drugs like cocaine and heroin have decreased, use of synthetic drugs like ecstasy are on the rise.

UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime wants to see more resources given to drug prevention and treatment. It says treating drug abuse as an illness and not a crime could reduce the global market for illegal narcotics. Dianne Penn has the story.

NARR: Global cocaine production is on the decline. At 845 tonnes, it is at a five-year low. Half the world's cocaine comes from Colombia, and production there has dropped by nearly 30 per cent when compared with 2007. Thomas Pietschmann is a research officer at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

PIETSCHMANN 1: The amounts of cocaine being trafficked to North America, particularly the US, are declining drastically, and this downward trend continues.

NARR: There's similar news in Europe, where the cocaine market has stabilized over the past two years. Part of the credit goes to the authorities, who last year seized more than 40 per cent of the global cocaine output, says UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa.

COSTA 1: This is an extraordinary performance by law enforcement. I pay tribute to all of them around the world, many of them getting killed-whether in this hemisphere or in the other hemisphere.

NARR: Costa was speaking at the launch this week of the 2009 World Drug Report. It finds there was also a drop in opium production in Afghanistan, source of more than 90 per cent of the world's opium. Cannabis is still the world's most widely cultivated-and used-drug. But synthetic drugs such as amphetamines and ecstasy are gaining ground, particularly in the developing world and among affluent youth globally, says UNODC researcher Thomas Nice.

NICE: One of the things we do estimate is about a third to three-quarters of the world's users live in East and South-east Asia. Large methamphetamine markets also exist in Oceania, in North America, and to a lesser degree in parts of Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.

NARR: June 26th is observed annually as World Drug Day. And UNODC is calling for stiffer measures against drug-related crime, including international agreements against organized crime and greater efficiency in law enforcement. But it also wants to see more resources allocated to prevention and treatment. Once again,Thomas Pietschmann.

PEITSCHMANN 2: Drug use is an illness. It is not just a criminal behaviour; it is an illness. Treating it makes the market smaller, and the worst thing what can happen to criminal networks is to make the market smaller-and this is exactly what we want to achieve. Lower the market, and the best way of doing (that) is treating people, helping them to recover from their addiction.

NARR: Thomas Pietschmann is a research officer at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, Austria. For UN Radio, I'm Dianne Penn.

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