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The presence of a lot of cocaine, cheaper and of higher quality in the market, allows UN foresee an increase in its use in Europe, despite the fact that during confinement due to the pandemic decreased because it is usually consumed in “social settings.”
“The purity of the cocaine available in Europe has increased by 40 percent in the last decade, meaning that high-quality cocaine is has, in effect, become cheaper per unit of purity ”, explains the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its World Report on 2021, published today Thursday.
In that document it is noted that in 2019, the last year for which data are provided, some 20 millions of people used cocaine, which represents 0.4% of The world population, a percentage unchanged for ten years.
The number of users in absolute terms has grown by 22% in that period due to the increase in the total population.
Less coca crops…
In fact, the UNODC has detected significant changes in the cocaine market.
On the one hand, in the year 2019 there was a 5% drop in coca leaf cultivation , the first in five years, especially due to a significant decline in Colombia, which remains, by far, the main source of this drug in the world.
The cultivated area remained unchanged in Peru and decreased by Bolivia.
Despite this, the UNODC warns that the economic crisis generated by the pandemic may cause many farmers in the region to be forced to vo See or continue growing coca.
But more cocaine
Parallel to the decline in cultivation, cocaine production has doubled between 2014 and 2019 , up to a record of 1, 784 tons.
Wastewater analysis indicates a increase in the amount of cocaine consumed in Europe, one of the two main markets, together with United States.
“All this points to an increase in the entire cocaine supply chain,” the report states.
Competition between bands
But also, the UN indicates that new criminal groups are entering the business of trafficking cocaine from South America to Europe , controlled by organizations s through alliances with gangs in Spain and Colombia.
“Now, however, organizations in the Balkans are becoming increasingly involved in trafficking and supply, and they are cutting out intermediaries and supplying cocaine directly from production areas in the Andean region ”, states the UNODC.
This growing competition, explains that UN body, causes more and higher quality cocaine to be available.
More consumption and consumers
Easier access to that drug will probably cause both an increase in the number of users and the amount used by those who already take that drug, also increasing the potential harm caused by this drug. drug.
To avoid this it will be necessary “ a solid investment in the treatment and prevention of drug use “, alerts the UN.
Another factor, stated in the report, is to increase judicial and police cooperation between Europe and America to attack criminal networks.
One of the areas in which this collaboration is necessary is in the control of new strategies to move drugs developed by criminal networks in response to restrictions on commercial flights caused by the covid.
The UNODC talks, for example, about how the use of light aircraft to transport cocaine from South America during the pandemic, or the increasing traffic through the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway.
Thus, it calls for so much more control of pilot licenses or the purchase of aviation fuel, and surveillance in the ports that connect several countries with the Atlantic.
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