ONE.- The UN revealed a worrying increase in the production and consumption of drugs in the world, while denouncing that inequalities aggravate the damaging effect of addictions on a global scale.
The World Drug Report 2023, released this Sunday in Vienna, highlights that drug users increased by 23% in the last decade, to 296 million, representing 5.8% of the global population between 15 and 64 years.
Drug-related deaths also grew by 17.5% between 2009 and 2019, to around 500,000. Hepatitis C and overdoses were the leading causes of death. Opioids, like heroin and fentanyl, are the deadliest type of drug.
Cannabis remains the most popular drug, with some 219 million users, followed by opioids, amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy-type stimulants.
Cocaine production hit an all-time high in 2021 and demand is also at an all-time high, raising concerns that the drug will expand outside its traditional markets of North America and Europe.
SYNTHETIC DRUGS
In addition, synthetic drugs are going through an unprecedented moment of boom because they offer a cheaper and faster production method by not depending on crops, such as coca leaves or poppies, or geographical limitations.
“Synthetic drugs can be produced anywhere and at any time,” Angela Me, the researcher who coordinated the report, summed up to the press about the advantages of these substances for criminal groups.
The report mentions the “overdose epidemic” in the United States, with 80,000 opioid deaths in 2021, 60% more than in 2019. Most of these deaths are due to synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl, 100 times more powerful than the morphine.
In addition, the report highlights the emerging problem of the “opioid epidemic” caused in Africa by tramadol – a type of pain reliever – and which receives little attention from the media.
MENTAL HEALTH AND CONSUMPTION
The UN explains the increase in consumers, in part, by the expansion of the world population, but also due to the increasing “agility” of criminal groups in the manufacture of drugs and the new forms of marketing on the Internet.
Another important factor behind the increase in consumption is “mental health problems”, especially after the anxiety situations caused by the pandemic, according to Angela Me.
Despite the increase in the most serious cases of drug disorder worldwide, only one in five people with such a situation receive any form of treatment.
“The number of people suffering from drug use disorders has skyrocketed to 39.5 million, representing an increase of 45% in 10 years,” the report highlights.
The UN recalls that there is a relationship between mental illness and drug use and that many people resort to substances on the illegal market to self-medicate.
“Many people who use drugs do it for self-medication, it’s not just to get high,” explained Chloe Carpentier, a UN researcher, to break with the idea that drug use is only for recreational purposes.
For this reason, the report calls on States to prioritize public health, prevention and access to treatment services to respond to the situation.
INEQUALITIES
Economic and gender inequalities also contribute to increasing the harmful effect of drugs, with poor countries, women and young people as the main losers regarding access to medical use of substances or addiction treatment.
In developed countries, for example, the availability of opioids for pain treatment is forty times greater than in low- and middle-income countries.
Thus, 86% of the world population lives in countries without adequate access to this type of medication for palliative care or pain reduction.
“Social and economic inequalities continue to drive and be driven by the drug phenomenon, threatening public health and human rights,” the report concludes.
The higher the socioeconomic level, the higher the propensity to start using drugs, according to the document, but it is the lower socioeconomic groups “those who pay the highest price, since they are more likely to suffer disorders” and lack treatment. .
