Between 2020 and 2021, cocaine cultivation increased by 35%, with Colombia, Peru and Bolivia creating more than 300,000 hectares of plantations. Demand for the drug has also suffered “continuous growth.”
The cultivation of cocaine increased by 35 percent between 2020 and 2021, reaching a historical record, the UN announced Thursday, referring to the emergence of new drug centers in southeastern Europe and Africa.
In 2021, More than 300,000 hectares of plantations appeared in Colombia, Peru and Boliviathe three countries where most of the cocaine fields are concentrated, warned the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Vienna, Austria.
Once harvested, the cocaine leaves are chemically prepared and mixed with gasoline, lime, cement, and ammonium sulfate to obtain a white paste.
This paste is then enriched in the laboratory with a mixture of acids and solvents to become cocaine.
In 2020, cocaine production had already reached more than 2,000 tonswhich was already a record, according to the report.
After the temporary interruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the global offer “continued to expand with great force”, said the UN, which explains that, in addition to the development of culture, “improvements in the transformation process” of the cocaine leaves.
At the same time, the organization has observed “continuous increase” in demand for cocaine over the past decade — evidenced by an unprecedented volume of seizures (almost 2,000 tons in 2021).
Demand continues to be concentrated among the wealthiest populations in the Americas and in various regions of Europe.
“This ‘explosion’ has to put us on alert,” defended the director of UNODC, Ghada Waly, quoted in the statement.
Central and West Africa are also playing an increasingly important role as transit areas, with Turkey and Greece seeing more and more cocaine pass through their territories.
On the other hand, the crack use — a highly addictive, smokable cocaine derivative known as the “poor man’s drug” — became widely used in the UKbut statistics show “strong increases” in admissions for withdrawal treatment in Belgium, France and Spain.
The report also points to the impact of the war in Ukraine on drug routes, concluding that it is “likely that foreign criminal groups”, which previously used Ukrainian ports to avoid controls in Western Europe, are moving “their activities to other ports on the Negro”. Sea, like Romania or Bulgaria”.
Source: Observadora
