By Susannah George, Joby Warrick - The Washington Post

Afghanistan’s fastest-growing drug industry operates from desert outposts in plain view.

One of its most bustling hubs, some five hours west of Kandahar, can only be reached by miles of dirt tracks that lead to a row of dusty shops topped with Taliban flags. Wholesalers like Abdulwadood work openly here, moving dozens of kilos of methamphetamine every week.

In the middle of his crowded shop, he casually tosses a half-kilo bag of long glassy shards onto the carpet. Its street value in Europe is tens of thousands of dollars. Abdulwadood will sell it for about $250.

“Every year, sales and production just increase and increase,” he said, speaking on the condition that only his first name be used to discuss the illicit drug industry. Behind him the rest of his stock was piled in a corner. He expected to sell the roughly 20 kilos of shisha — the Afghan term for meth — in just a few days.

For decades, the country has been a global hub for opium production, estimated to supply 80 percent of the world’s opiate users. Now its meth industry is growing at breakneck speed, stoking fears among Western experts and officials that, under the Taliban, Afghanistan could become a major supplier as demand rises globally.

The drug trade now flourishing in Afghanistan: Meth

Late last month, I got word via WhatsApp that six old friends were in the custody of Mexican immigration authorities. All are indigenous Tawahka from eastern Honduras’ remote Moskitia region. With only backpacks, they joined a larger group of migrants leaving from San Pedro Sula in late February. Four days later, they’d crossed from Guatemala into Mexico, and a week after that, they had traversed the state of Chiapas. 

 picked them up somewhere north of Mexico City on March 28. They have since been deported back to Honduras, and are now planning their next attempt to get to the United States.

As accustomed as we are in the U.S. to hearing about the plight of Central American migrants, the fact that indigenous Hondurans are joining that exodus might come as a surprise. Especially now: the latest news from Honduras would suggest a new era of hope, not despair. After all, the country seems poised to finally curtail the impunity, extortion, violence, corruption, elite-led extractivism, and environmental devastation that have flourished under the previous 12 years of U.S.-backed “narco-dictatorship.”

 party strongly backed by indigenous peoples and workers—came to power on a platform dedicated to defending human rights and citizen security, fighting corruption and drug trafficking, and mitigating the devastating effects of climate change on this hurricane-battered country. Since her inauguration in January, she’s moved swiftly on all fronts. Her predecessor and his former chief of police are both to be extradited to the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges. Her administration just banned new open-pit mines. She’s invited the UN to set up an anti-corruption commission. Environmental defenders are being freed from arbitrary detention. And in mid-March, her new Forestry minister announced immediate government action to enforce protection of the country’s watersheds and forests, with priority attention to protected areas and indigenous territories in the Moskitia, where the country’s astronomical rates of deforestation, much driven by drug-traffickers’ actions, have been concentrated.

For the many Hondurans who have long struggled to defend their rights to ancestral lands, to protect forests, and to mitigate climate change, these developments are truly inspiring. The focus on the Moskitia is particularly welcome. This is an area whose biological and cultural diversity are both extraordinary and co-dependent, and have offered crucial lessons on climate-adaptive living and governance.

Honduras shows how drug policy is also climate policy

The Biden administration’s first full-fledged national drug control strategy was released today with the country in the midst of a drug overdose crisis of unprecedented severity, with more than 106,000 fatalities in the past 12 months alone.

The 152-page document, which was submitted to Congress, details the administration’s proposals to address the nation’s drug problems by enhancing drug treatment, investing in harm reduction, tackling drug trafficking, and improving data collection and evaluation.

Below are five initial takeaways from President Biden’s first drug control strategy:

An overdue start on modernizing U.S. drug policies to support public health

The strategy released today makes a start on that response, especially by focusing on ensuring access to treatment for substance use disorders and highlighting the crucial role of harm reduction services. Even so, when measured against the scale of the nation’s overdose problems and the urgency of the needs, Biden’s new plan appears quite timid.

The first U.S. strategy to include a chapter on harm reduction

The plan’s recognition and adoption of syringe service programs (SSPs) is an especially significant step as part of the administration’s strategy for U.S. drug policy. As the strategy notes, SSPs and other harm reduction services “will save lives, improve health, and likely have a favorable economic benefit to society.”

Noteworthy advances risk being undercut by the continuation of approaches that have already failed

The Biden plan’s positive innovations regarding investment in treatment and harm reduction strategies risk being undermined by a continued commitment to the kinds of policies that have exacerbated the present crisis and that continue to absorb the lion’s share of resources, namely, drug criminalization at home and wildly exaggerated expectations for what can be achieved through supply control efforts abroad.

Highlights targeting financial profits to disrupt international drug trafficking

Prioritizing enforcement that focuses on the profits that flow to the higher echelons of trafficking networks makes more sense than attacking the subsistence livelihoods of farmers. Still, expectations for the kind of impact that can be achieved by targeting finances and profits should be tempered.

The stark limits of what can be achieved through supply control under the prevailing prohibitionist framework underscore the urgency of addressing the immediate needs through interventions that deliver direct and positive life-saving impacts, especially scaled-up treatment and harm reduction services.

Invites a fresh look at traditional drug policy data

Biden’s new approach acknowledges the need to consider “the full range of trends and activities, including consumption patterns, drug use consequences, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, drug production, transportation and distribution by drug trafficking organizations, and many more” as the basis for effective policy-making.

Biden’s new drug control strategy: Long overdue focus on harm reduction and other takeaways

 The opium harvest in Afghanistan increased by eight per cent in 2021 compared to last year, to 6,800 tons, which could lead to markets around the globe being flooded with around 320 tons of pure heroin trafficked from the country, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today.

According to UNODC’s research brief on “The drug situation in Afghanistan 2021 – latest findings and emerging threats”, Afghan opiates supply eight out of ten users worldwide, while Afghanistan accounted for 85 per cent of global opium production in 2020.

“UNODC’s new research brief on the 2021 opium harvest, completed in July, and the overall drug situation in Afghanistan highlights the urgent need for international assistance to promote sustainable reductions in illicit drug cultivation, production and demand , as part of overall UN support to the people of Afghanistan,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly.

The brief was launched at a policy meeting of the Paris Pact Initiative, which brings together 58 countries and 23 organizations to combat illicit trafficking in Afghan opiates. The meeting is expected to endorse recommendations for action in four areas: cross-border cooperation, detecting and blocking illicit financial flows, preventing diversion of precursor chemicals, and drug prevention and treatment.
According to UNODC research findings, income from Afghan opiates amounted to US$ 1.8 to 2.7 billion in 2021 inside Afghanistan, but much larger profits are made in the illicit drug supply chains outside the country. Increased political uncertainty in Afghanistan since August 2021 is driving up opium prices, which almost doubled in August compared to May.

Higher prices may provide an incentive for farmers sowing opium poppy this winter to cultivate more, increasing next year’s harvest.

The UNODC brief also warns that alongside rising opium and heroin production, methamphetamine manufacture in Afghanistan, using the wild ephedra plant as a precursor, has sharply increased in recent years. High regional and global demand for methamphetamine, coupled with a saturated global market for opiates, could push further expansion of methamphetamine manufacturing, as well as that of other synthetic drugs.

The drug situation in Afghanistan 2021 – Latest findings and emerging trends

By Ian Tennant, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)

In a series of recent meetings, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs identified state challenges in tackling drug trafficking, but glossed over the broader issues shaping the global drug economy and how to foster a more coordinated and multi-stakeholder response through the UN system.

Between 19 and 21 October, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) met at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna to discuss issues of transnational organized crime, specifically the links between drug trafficking and other crimes, challenges in tracking and seizing the proceeds of crime and online drug trafficking. Notably, the meetings marked a return to an in-person format, albeit with masks, social distancing and COVID-19 access requirements.

With such face-to-face meetings a rarity since her January 2020 appointment, UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly duly seized the chance to address the opening session. Calling upon her organization’s accredited ambassadors and diplomats ‘to reflect on the big picture [and] how this Commission can help target the criminal structures that sustain drug trafficking,’ the executive director clearly wanted member states to rectify the lack of analysis of illicit drug markets that marked this year’s main CND meeting in May, during which the committee had instead focused on the health impacts of drugs and the ongoing political debate around cannabis classification.

But her call fell on deaf ears. Throughout the October meetings, there was little analysis of the criminal economy around drug markets, while the bigger picture of how illicit drug economies thrive was not addressed in any detail. Instead, the presentations and discussions were state-centric, focusing on the latest research and perspectives from the UNODC and some member states, the challenges states face in law enforcement and criminal justice responses and the need for more effective international cooperation between states to address these challenges.

There was little discussion around how to explore joint efforts with other parts of the UNODC mandate, or indeed the wider UN system, despite Waly’s argument that the meeting represented a ‘unique opportunity to explore joint and complementary efforts in the substantive work’ of the CND and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), the CND’s sister commission, which will hold its first meeting on 10–12 November.

Neither was there much recognition among member states over the need to enhance cooperation between states and civil society, although several civil society panellists were vocal on the issue. Tariq Khosa, director of the Centre for Governance Reform (Pakistan) and a former senior law enforcement official, made a strong case for greater civil society involvement and the importance of community resilience in countering organized crime:

I represented the Government of Pakistan as Head of Delegation to the CND in Vienna in 2010 as the Federal Secretary of Narcotics Control…. Working within the government, we strongly felt that without developing community resilience and making civil society as active partner, the state alone cannot combat the menace of illicit drug trade, corruption and associated organized crimes…. So, the first lesson that we have drawn is for the society and state to forge an effective partnership in tackling the challenges of organized crimes.

Khosa’s call for civil society engagement was subsequently supported by the Ambassador of Mexico and the delegation of Canada in ensuing discussions, showing some member state support for this position.

Another civil society intervention came from John Collins, Director of Academic Engagement at the GI-TOC, who highlighted the big picture impacts of illicit financial flows in the Western Balkans and East and southern Africa (two regions on which the GI-TOC has published research) and concomitant need for civil society inclusion:

Our regional examples are illustrative of the global and local effects on development and security of illicit financial flows related to the drugs trade – poverty, violence, drug addiction and health impacts, and a general breakdown in good governance. The response not only lies in the seizure of drugs and money, but a holistic response including the prioritization of urban security, support for community resilience and including civil society voices at all stages.

All in all, the CND sessions were a useful platform for exchange between states and civil society, and a welcome return to more in-person engagements, which can facilitate better international cooperation. Civil society played their role in providing some alternative viewpoints and new perspectives, and therefore added value to the proceedings.

But while the discussions succeeded in identifying key issues and challenges for states in mobilizing their responses, states once again avoided analysis of the criminal economy of drug markets. As such, Waly’s stated hope for the meeting – that ‘the Commission can foster political momentum [to] address the criminal economy that surrounds the illicit drug market’ – looks likely to remain unfulfilled.

Thinking inside the box: CND thematic sessions

Consisting of five separate booklets, the 

 provides an in-depth analysis of the global drug markets and paints a comprehensive picture of the measurable effects and potential impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the world drug problem.

 is aimed not only at fostering greater international cooperation to counter the impact of the world drug problem on health, governance and security, but also, with its special focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, at assisting Member States in anticipating and addressing challenges that may arise in the near future.

World Drug Report 2021

The Ghana Narcotics Commission Act 2020, Act 1019 represents an essential example for drug policy reform advocacy in West Africa. However, we have seen drug production and trafficking skyrocket, which offers further evidence that 'tough-on-drugs' laws do not work, hence the need for a paradigm shift towards humane drug policies that place people and communities first.

Join our speakers on Thursday, June 24 at the University of Ghana School of Law Auditorium for the Global Day of Action 2021 / Support. Don't Punish. Forum to discuss critical issues about the new law of Ghana and explore strategies in its proper implementation as a country. We will also LAUNCH an Annual Memorial Lectures in honour of Kofi Annan on Drug Policy Reform.

 - Scientist, Former Chairman of CSIR Ghana

 - Co-founder & MD of Africa Software Soulutions Ltd.

 - Associate Professor, University of Ghana School of Law

Rational drug policy: Centring social justice and health

As per the workplan agreed upon on 24th June 2019, thematic discussions will take place every autumn during the period between 2019-22, addressing the challenges identified by the taking stock paragraph of the 2019 Ministerial Declaration.

Accordingly, on 19-21 october, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs will meet to discuss the following three elements of the 2019 Ministerial Declaration’s “Taking Stock” paragraph:

 Increasing links between drug trafficking, corruption and other forms of organized crime, including trafficking in persons, trafficking in firearms, cybercrime and money-laundering and, in some cases, terrorism, including money-laundering in connection with the financing of terrorism, are observed (19 October 2021)

 The value of confiscated proceeds of crime related to money-laundering arising from drug trafficking at the global level remains low (20 October 2021)

 The criminal misuse of information and communications technologies for illicit drug-related activities is increasing (21 October 2021).

For each thematic segment up to 5 NGOs will have the possibility to present their work and positioning

. In order to ensure an inclusive, comprehensive and meaningful civil society participation, NGOs will work through the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) which has been requested to coordinate contributions.

Each speaker will have 3-5 minutes to present his or her work on the thematic focus of the day.

Selected speakers will be asked to send in their statements or videos (including transcripts) no later than 11 OCTOBER 2021.

 Interpretation will not be available during the meetings

 and all abstracts and statements have to be submitted in English.

I

n order to apply for a speaking slot, please fill out the online form by 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 at 11:45 p.m. (CEST, Vienna local time): 

The VNGOC will follow the speaker selection guidelines established in 2018: http://vngoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CSTF-Speaker-Selection-Guidelines-final-formatted.pdf

CND Intersessional meeting - Thematic session on the implementation of all international drug policy commitments following up to the 2019 Ministerial Declaration

A special commemorative event of the sixty-forth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, at the occasion of the United Nations Imternational Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, will be held on Friday, 25 June 2021, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Vienna time (CEST), Board-Room D, Vienna International Center and online.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the special event will be held in a hybrid format, combining a limited in-person component with an online participation for participants worldwide.

The webcast of the special event will be available on this page. JOIN US on 25 June at 1.30p.m. Vienna time (CEST).

COVID-19 GUIDELINES FOR IN-PERSON PARTICIPANTS

Participants who will attend in person are kindly requested to familiarize themselves with and follow the COVID-19 guidance for meetings participants at the Special commemorative event, which will be published shortly on this page.

Presented in five separate booklets, the 

 provides a wealth of information and analysis to support the international community in implementing international drug policy commitments. Booklet 1 summarizes the four subsequent booklets by reviewing their key findings and highlighting their policy implications. Booklet 2 offers a projection of the impact of population growth on drug use by 2030; it continues with a global overview of the latest trends and estimates on the supply of and demand for drugs, including, its health impact, and addresses the trafficking of substances for drug markets on the Internet. Booklet 3 provides an analysis of the global markets for cannabis and opioids, both in terms of supply and use; it includes an overview of the latest developments in countries with measures regulating the non-medical use of cannabis. It also discusses the overlaps between the various opioids, and access to pharmaceutical opioids. Booklet 4 provides the latest trends and estimates on markets for stimulants - cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine and “ecstasy”, at the global level and in the most affected subregions. Booklet 5 concludes by providing an early assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug markets by looking at how it has affected drug supply and demand dynamics, including in terms of health consequences and how drug service provision has adapted to the new situation in many countries.

UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING

The International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, also known as 'World Drug Day', is celebrated annually on 26 June. The theme of World Drug Day 2021 is "Share Facts on Drugs. Save Lives"

Special commemorative event of the 64th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs - World Drug Day

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on mobility of trade and transport, the methamphetamine market in East and Southeast Asia has continued to expand. While Shan State, Myanmar, remains the main source of illicit manufacture of methamphetamine in the region, there are growing signs that Cambodia is being increasingly targeted for large- scale illicit methamphetamine manufacture, showing organized crime diversifying their methamphetamine supply channels.

As for the past decade, the total amount of methamphetamine seized in East and Southeast Asia has continued to increase, reaching another record level in 2020 with preliminary data showing at least 169 tons of methamphetamine seized. Though there was a decline in seizures in East Asia, it was more than offset by the increase in seizures in Southeast Asia, largely due to the lower Mekong countries,1 which accounted for 71 per cent of the total amount of methamphetamine seized in East and Southeast Asia.

Several trafficking routes have emerged, and seizures of methamphetamine point to diversified sources of the substance. Lao PDR has been increasingly targeted for transit and trafficking of methamphetamine and its related chemicals, as indicated by sharp increases in seizures of the drug along the border between Lao PDR and northeastern Thailand. Sources of methamphetamine have diversified beyond Shan State, Myanmar, with reports of methamphetamine being trafficked to the region from West Asia and South Africa.

COVID-19 and its associated mobility restrictions resulted in only a short-lived disruption to the supply of and demand for methamphetamine. Available quarterly data from both East and Southeast Asia show a drop in seizures in the second quarter of 2020 during the height of the pandemic. However, seizures quickly rebounded from the third quarter onwards, demonstrating the flexibility of organized crime groups to adapt to change and take advantage of porous borders in the region. Wholesale prices of crystalline methamphetamine declined in several countries in Southeast Asia, namely Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while its purity remained stable, indicating limited impact on the availability of methamphetamine.

Synthetic Drugs in East and Southeast Asia: Latest developments and challenges 2021

The new EU drugs strategy 2021-25 makes explicit that the European response to drugs should be evidence-based and delivered through a balanced and integrated approach, which ultimately must be judged on its impact on the health, safety and wellbeing of our citizens. The EMCDDA is tasked with helping to provide the evidence needed to ensure that European policies and actions on drugs are effective, well-targeted and responsive to new threats and challenges. The European Drug Report (EDR) 2021 arrives at a difficult time for meeting this objective, as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted greatly on all areas of life, including the drug situation and our ability to monitor it. I am therefore extremely pleased that we can still provide the detailed analysis presented in this report, which includes an early assessment of the effect of the pandemic on drug markets and drug use. However, I also believe the value of our work is not simply delivered through accurately documenting past events. We also need to look forward and consider what lessons emerge from the findings of the EDR 2021 in order to ensure that we continue in the future to provide the relevant and timely information required to keep our policies and actions commensurate with the growing challenges we face in the drugs area.

In 2019, the EMCDDA conducted, with its stakeholders, a foresight and horizon-scanning exercise to increase our awareness of how the evolution of the drug situation may impact on our work. Among the overarching conclusions of this work was that many of the factors that would shape the drug problems of the future were external ones. Globalisation, developments in information technology, demographic shifts, alongside issues like climate change and human migration, are likely to have important implications for the future drug problems we face. We already see this, as both the drug market and patterns of drug use are becoming ever more dynamic, complex and globally connected. This has made us reflect on the need for more timely reporting, and to consider if both the data sources we use and the targets we select for our analysis are sufficient to meet both current and future policy development needs.

What we did not expect was that the events of 2020 would demonstrate so profoundly the importance of this reflection. Within a few weeks, we needed to reorientate our work to support our stakeholders by providing enhanced resources for sharing information and best practices. The speed of developments required us to recognise that this could only be achieved through a more interactive model for knowledge co-production. I am proud of the work of the EMCDDA during this period, but I recognise that this was only possible because of the input we received from stakeholders across Europe. Particularly important was the possibility provided by our Reitox network of national focal points to engage in an ongoing conversation on national responses to the pandemic. This highlighted the value of sharing experiences and preliminary information when there is a need for rapid action. Beyond this, we also launched a series of trendspotter studies to collate qualitative and emerging quantitative data to provide a near real-time complementary data source to accompany our routine monitoring information. The latest insights from our third COVID-19 trendspotter, published recently, are summarised here. These results are preliminary, but they help us identify some of the possible longer-term effects of the pandemic on drug markets, drug use and our responses.

European Drug Report 2021

By Michael Plant & Peter Singer / NewStatesman

Forty years ago, Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one”. This marked the start of the “War on Drugs”, a global escalation in police and military efforts to crack down on drug users and the illicit drug trade.

In the past four decades, three things have become clear. First, the War on Drugs has not been won. Although a 1998 UN special session aimed to create “a drug-free world” by 2008, illicit drugs are still plainly available today in nearly every town and city in the world. In fact, a 2013 paper in the 

 found that, between 1990 and 2007, the prices of heroin, cocaine and cannabis in the US dropped by over 80 per cent while their purity increased. The story was similar for Europe and Australia.

Second, the War on Drugs cannot be won. People take drugs hoping to feel pleasure and soothe their distress. These desires are not going away. People who want drugs are not deterred by criminal sanctions either: a 2014 report by the UK’s Home Office did not find “any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country’s enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country”. It is also effectively impossible to stop the supply of such profitable products – a kilo of cocaine can be bought in Colombia for $1,500 but sells for 40 times that on American streets. Enforcement suffers from the “balloon effect” : successfully squeezing production in one area merely moves it elsewhere.

Transnational & organised crime