Worldwide production of heroin and cocaine falling, says UN drug chief

Source: The Guardian

• Call to treat use as an illness, not a crime
• Britain has most problem users in Europe

Duncan Campbell

=snip=

Antonio Maria Costa, director of the UNODC, called for universal access to drug treatment and said: "People who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution."

He said that was one of the best ways of shrinking the market as people with serious drug problems provide the bulk of demand. He added that legalisation of drugs was not the answer.

According to the report, opium cultivation in Afghanistan, where 93% of the world's opium is grown, declined by 19% in 2008. Colombia, which produces half of the world's cocaine, saw an 18% decline in cultivation and a 28% decline in production compared with 2007.

Global coca production, at 845 tonnes, was said to be at a five-year low, despite some increases in cultivation in Peru and Bolivia.

Seismic shifts were taking place in the $50bn (£30bn) global cocaine market, the report suggested. "Purity levels and seizures are down, prices are up, and consumption patterns are in flux. In Central America, cartels are fighting for a shrinking market."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/24/united-nations-report-drug-use

According to Gretchen Peters, author of "Seeds of Terror: How Opium and Heroin are Financing the Taliban and Al Qaeda," the Taliban is sitting on a stockpile of 8,000 TONS of opium.

In fact, reduced production for a couple of years could be good for them because it will drive up prices.

But still quite high, and the price of a gram is still half of what is was in 1990, according to UNODC.

The balloon effect is at work: Production declines in Colombia because of mass eradication, but rises in Peru and Bolivia.

and the people were really nice but there seemed to be an overall sense of hopelessness in that country.

People don't party like rockstar when their unemployed.

So whats bucking the trend?

http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3241&Itemid=48

True, most of this stuf finds its way into the bodies Iranian drug addicts so the Iranian news sites may be a better source of info.....along the WOD battlefront that is.

Way to undercut your own message. God forbid people seek treatment because they believe drugs have made their lives unbearable, unmanageable, and unlivable. Instead of as a way of avoiding jail. Because that's when drug treatment becomes effective. This also helps to prevent wasting underfunded treatment resources on people that don't believe they have an illness that needs to be healed. What we really need is drug treatment for those want to heal and drug education for those who don't believe they're sick.