The war in Ukraine could make it easier for illicit drug manufacturing to flourish, given what has happened in other conflicts, the United Nations has warned.
Source: AFP
“Information from the Middle East and Southeast Asia tends to indicate that conflict situations can act as a magnet for the manufacture of synthetic drugs that, in fact, can be produced anywhere,” underlines the United Nations Office on Drugs. and Crime (UNODC) in its annual report.
“A consequence that can be even more important when the conflict zone is close to consumer markets,” he adds.
Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine had a growing number of amphetamine laboratories, said expert Angela Me, interviewed by AFP. Close to 80 were decommissioned in 2020, compared to 17 the year before.
A production capacity that “could be extended if the conflict persists.” “The police are no longer there to stop lab activity,” she explained.
The war may also “disrupt trafficking routes,” the report notes, citing a possible decline in Ukraine from early 2022.
In addition, Angela called me to monitor the situation in Afghanistan, which in 2021 produced 86% of the world’s opium.
In April, the Taliban’s paramount chief ordered a ban on poppy cultivation. “We must see if that will translate into a drastic reduction,” said the expert, or if, on the contrary, illicit fields will develop, given the deterioration of the country’s socioeconomic conditions.
Any change will have “repercussions in almost all regions of the world,” the UN warns in its report.
Some 284 million people -one in every 18 in the age group between 15 and 64 years- used drugs in 2020, that is, 26% more than ten years earlier.
Most were men, but women use stimulants such as amphetamines (ATS) heavily but are “underrepresented in treatment,” Angela Me said.
The specialist mentioned “a double stigma” and the need to set up places where women feel “safe” and can stay with their children.
On the other hand, cocaine production broke a new record, reaching 1,982 tons in 2020.
The UNODC report, which is a “preliminary evaluation”, is based on information that the organization collected from its member states, its own antennas and the analysis of open sources, the media and institutional reports.
