By Matija Šerić
Drug use carries numerous negative health consequences. It can include a range of physical and mental health disorders, the most significant being addiction, HIV infection, liver diseases associated with hepatitis, overdose, and premature death. Of the 284 million people who used drugs in 2020, an estimated 13.6% suffer from drug use disorders. The total number of individuals estimated to suffer from addiction increased from around 27 million in 2010 to about 38.6 million in 2020. The UN report estimates that 11.2 million people worldwide injected drugs. Approximately half of this number were living with hepatitis C, 1.4 million were living with HIV, and 1.2 million with both.
The Negative Impact of Drugs on Health
In Africa and Latin America, people under the age of 35 represent the majority of those receiving treatment for drug use disorders. In many countries in Africa and in South and Central America, the largest share of people undergoing treatment for drug addiction are primarily affected by cannabis use. In Eastern and Southeastern Europe and Central Asia, people are most commonly treated for opioid addiction. In the United States and Canada, overdose deaths are largely driven by the epidemic of non-medical fentanyl use. A record of more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths was recorded in 2021, compared to nearly 92,000 in 2020.
Women remain a minority among global drug users, but their rate of consumption is increasing and in some areas they are catching up with men. Women now account for between 45 and 49 percent of amphetamine users and non-medical users of pharmaceutical stimulants, pharmaceutical opioids, sedatives, and tranquilizers. The treatment gap remains significant. Although every second person who uses amphetamines is female, women account for only one in five people receiving treatment for amphetamine-related disorders. Many women do not have access to adequate addiction treatment. The UN World Drug Report 2022 also highlights the wide range of roles women fulfill in global drug supply chains, including coca cultivation, transporting small quantities of drugs, retail sales to consumers, and smuggling into prisons.
The Negative Environmental Impact
Illegal drug markets can impact the environment at the national, regional, or household level. The carbon footprint of indoor cannabis cultivation is on average between 16 and 100 times higher than that of outdoor cultivation. Other environmental impacts include deforestation linked to illegal coca cultivation, waste generated during the production of synthetic drugs—often five to thirty times greater than the volume of the final product—and improper waste disposal that can directly affect soil, water, and air, and indirectly harm organisms, animals, and the food chain.
Record Seizures
The largest quantities of drugs seized globally in 2020 were cannabis plants. Cocaine seizures also increased, despite the coronavirus pandemic, reaching a record 1,424 tons that year. Nearly 90% of the cocaine seized worldwide in 2021 was smuggled via maritime transport, particularly in shipping containers that have proven ideal for drug cartels. Seizure data show that cocaine trafficking is expanding to regions beyond the main markets of North America and Europe, with increasing levels of trade in Africa and Asia.
Methamphetamine trafficking continues to expand geographically: 117 countries reported methamphetamine seizures between 2016 and 2020, compared to 84 countries between 2006 and 2010. Meanwhile, the quantities of methamphetamine seized increased fivefold between 2010 and 2020.
Global opium production rose by 7% between 2020 and 2021 to 7,930 tons, mainly due to increased production in Afghanistan. However, the global area under opium poppy cultivation decreased by 16% during the same period. In the two largest methamphetamine markets, seizures are on the rise: 7% in North America and 30% in Southeast Asia in 2020 compared to 2019—record figures in both regions. A record number of methamphetamine seizures was also recorded in Southwest Asia, with a 50% increase in 2020 compared to 2019.
War – A Paradise for the Drug Business
Illicit drug trafficking typically flourishes in situations of conflict and where the rule of law is weak. Drug smuggling and consumption often prolong armed conflicts. Data from the Middle East, South America, and Southeast Asia suggest that conflict zones can act as magnets for synthetic drug production. Historically, warring parties have used drugs to finance conflicts and generate revenue. The UN World Drug Report 2022 also reveals that conflicts can disrupt and alter drug trafficking routes, as occurred during the Balkan wars of the 1990s and in Ukraine. There was a dramatic increase in the number of discovered clandestine drug laboratories in Ukraine: from 17 dismantled labs in 2019 to 79 in 2020. Of those 79, as many as 67 were producing amphetamines.
Colombia
Drug production and distribution often geographically overlap with armed conflicts. The best examples include Colombia and Afghanistan—countries with long-standing insurgencies that together account for a significant share of global heroin and cocaine production. In Colombia, coca cultivation and trafficking were key to the decades-long guerrilla warfare of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). However, when FARC agreed to cease its involvement in the drug trade as part of the 2016 peace agreement, coca cultivation did not decline, partly because not all armed factions signed the agreement. There was even an increase in coca cultivation and trafficking in some areas. Production reached a record level in 2017, as some farmers grew coca in order to receive government subsidies to stop cultivating it.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, illicit drug trafficking is closely linked to prolonged instability, poverty, and war. Opium has been used in the northern parts of the country since the 18th century, but it was not until the 1980s that the country became a major global supplier. While drug trafficking carries economic weight in many countries, nowhere is it as significant as in Afghanistan, where it constitutes a substantial share of the national economy. It is estimated that revenue from the illicit opiate economy in Afghanistan amounted to between $1.8 and $2.7 billion in 2021, equivalent to as much as 12% of GDP. Farmers have long paid taxes to non-state actors, including the Taliban before their return to power in August 2021. In May 2021, the Afghan government reported that the Taliban were also involved in the rapidly growing production of methamphetamine.
How to Solve the Problem?
The cultivation and illegal trafficking of narcotics represent one of the main challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. There is no perfect formula to solve this problem—if there were, it would largely have already been resolved. What is certain is that drug cartels belong to organized crime networks, and organized crime exists either because the state protects it or tolerates it.
If states truly wanted to dismantle drug cartels and drug markets, in most cases they could do so successfully. The problem is that in some countries in Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere, powerful societal structures are entangled in this illegal activity and benefit from it. Undoubtedly, certain centers of power around the world benefit from youth drug use, as it keeps them unaware and less likely to rebel against numerous injustices.
In any case, reducing or eradicating drug consumption requires coordinated action by the international community, national governments, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders. Urgent measures must include strengthening prevention, improving addiction treatment, and intensifying the fight against drug cartels and trafficking networks.
