According to a report released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cocaine production has reached a new record level. The Vienna-based United Nations agency expressed concern about the global illicit cocaine market. The cultivation of coca plants shot up by 35 percent last year.
The area under cultivation in South America increased to more than 300,000 hectares. The UN experts also reported that advances in the chemical processing of coca into cocaine helped increase production.
increased demand
Demand for the stimulant drug has also increased in many regions of the world over the past decade, the report said. According to UN experts, the North Sea route may have contributed to the spread of cocaine in Europe. According to the report, authorities in Antwerp seized 89.5 tons of cocaine in 2021, compared to 70.6 tons in Rotterdam. A record amount of 19 tons was confiscated in Hamburg in 2021.
In the previous year, around 3.5 million EU citizens used cocaine, i.e. 1.2 percent of the total population. This makes cocaine the second most commonly used drug in the EU after cannabis. Even in Austria, the number of people using cocaine has doubled in a very short time.
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