This note provides an overview of human rights and international law concerns raised by the 2011 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board.
Every year, UNODC poppy survey teams roam the hills of Shan and Kachin states to ground-truth satellite images and validate the cultivation production estimates on which its annual report will be based. When it is launched later in the year, the UNODC South-East Asia Annual Opium Poppy Survey...
Welcome to the second edition of the IDPC Drug Policy Guide. The Guide brings together global evidence and examples of best practice to provide guidance on the review, design and implementation of national drug policies.
Myanmar produced an estimated 610 tonnes in 2011, making it the world's second-biggest opium supplier after Afghanistan. Now, emerging from half a century of military dictatorship, Myanmar says it wants to buck that trend.
Some 12 countries have confirmed their attendance at the anti-drug summit being organized by Peru for 2012, with the objective of coordinating and elaborating joint policies in response to drug trafficking, the Peruvian anti-drug czar, Ricardo Soberón, announced.
Opium production in Myanmar increased for the fifth consecutive year in 2011, while its price skyrocketed nearly 50 percent, United Nations officials declare.
One of the frequently overlooked costs of the war on drugs is its negative impact on the environment – mainly resulting from aerial spraying of drug crops in ecologically sensitive environments such as the Andes and Amazon basin.
In Laos, new cash crops such as fruit, corn and rice have helped turn most farmers away from poppy cultivation. But the struggle is constant. From pests to pruning techniques, these crops, which take well to the region’s rugged mountainous terrain but typically earn less, demand different...
The 2011 Afghan Opium Survey reports an increase in opium production and prices, and sustained high rates of opiate consumption and HIV prevalence amongst injecting drug users in Afghanistan.
Some 80,000 farmers' families in Colombia depend on illicit coca bush cultivation to survive. UNODC runs projects to wean farmers off illicit crop cultivation by encouraging them to pursue alternative livelihoods
Bolivian President Evo Morales said that a regional South American bloc should "decertify'' the U.S. in its counternarcotics efforts, hitting back at Washington's criticism of his South American nation on drugs. Morales accused the United States of being the root cause of the international drug...
Newly installed Peruvian President Ollanta Humala is facing the first serious challenge to his authority as coca farmer unions have gone on strike to protest the resumption of coca plant eradication. Last month, Humala's government announced a temporary halt to eradication in the Upper Huallaga...
The move comes as a surprise to the U.S., whose envoy says she is awaiting an explanation from the Peru government over the halting of the program that targeted coca, the base material of cocaine.
These briefings address serious human rights abuses that result from drug control efforts, including torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and denial of essential medicines and basic health services. The briefings are now available...
In an article entitled "From coca monitoring to sustainable farming", UNODC highlights the importance of alternative development for a successful drug crop eradication campaign in Bolivia.
This briefing paper provides an overview of issues related to kratom legislation and policy in Thailand as well as a set of conclusions and recommendations to contribute to a reassessment of the current ban on kratom in Thailand and the region.
The war on drugs creates massive costs, resulting from the enforcement-led approach that puts organised crime in control of the trade. It is time to count these costs and explore the alternatives, using the best evidence available, to deliver a safer, healthier and more just world.
This year, experts, activists and policy makers from Latin America will gather in Mexico to favour an informed debate on drug policy and generate a regional exchange of experience with the purpose of updating drug policy in the region.
