Global facts about drugs are eyebrow-raising. Yet public talk about drugs and addiction is still considered taboo in many regions, including the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia topped the list of countries which seized amphetamine-group substances in 2008, confiscating about 13 metric tonnes of amphetamine substances — almost 27 per cent of the amount seized around the globe. North America is the largest cocaine market by region, heroin prices hit the peak in Europe and about 90 per cent of the world's opium comes from Afghanistan.
Yet, experts say, the "stability" in the number of drug users around the globe, for some years now, is good news.
The bad news, however, is the increase in developed nations and the deterioration of the situation in developing countries.
Apart from the increasing number of drug users in developing countries, the abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and prescription drugs around the world is among the new trends mentioned in the recently released World Drug Report 2010 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"The most important thing we had at the global level," said Thomas Peitschmann, an expert from the Policy Analysis and Research Branch of the Vienna-based UNODC, "is the decline in opium and cocaine production worldwide and a decline in consumption in North America, particularly the United States, between 2006 and 2009."
However, in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, "we continue to see a significant seizure of amphetamine", Matt Nice, ATS expert at UNODC, told Weekend Review. "It continues to grow. It has reached the point where there are more seizures of stimulants in the region than anywhere else right now and, for us, this is a major concern."
Significantly, seizure figures "mirror" those related to people seeking treatment "so closely", experts noted. Both figures are going up.
For instance, "Saudi Arabia seized 12.8 metric tonnes of amphetamine out of the 47 metric tonnes of amphetamine-group substances reported globally" in 2008, Nice said.
Confiscated amphetamine-group substances, experts say, include synthetic stimulant amphetamine (24.3 metric tonnes), methamphetamine (19.3 metric tonnes) and other stimulants (about 3 metric tonnes). The US comes second, with a seizure of 7,549 metric tonnes.
China, the United Kingdom, Burkina Faso and Thailand followed.
At the same time, statistics provided by a treatment centre in Saudi Arabia also show a huge increase in the number of addicts seeking treatment.
From only 88 people in 1998, the number of addicts treated by one of the Saudi Arabian rehabilitation centres jumped to 770 in 2006.
The number reflects the situation in just one centre and Nice seems unsure whether this is an indication of the trend in "a country or the whole region".
Saudi Arabia's population, estimated at 27 million, represents the largest single market in the region and there has been a long history of use of real pharmaceutical drug Captagon throughout the region, noted experts.
Pharmaceutical drugs that are overprescribed are often associated with increasing substance abuse.
"After the production of Captagon was stopped, the high demand was met through illicit production, the cost to manufacture tablets being cheaper than other drugs. For example, the last street price for Captagon in Saudi Arabia was less than $5 per pill. Amphetamine's effects appeal to all layers of society, be it labourers who want to work harder, students wanting to study longer or those who want to lose weight," Nice said.
"But we must also keep in mind that it is not just Saudi Arabia reporting significant seizures. Several seizures have been reported in nearly every country in the region," he added.
But many feel concerned that the seizure of more drugs means that the quantities of smuggled drugs have also gone up.
"It is the tip of the iceberg," said Jordanian psychiatrist Walid Sarhan, who has served on a number of committees trying to fight drug abuse in Jordan.
"It is something standard and known internationally. In the best scenario, you can seize between 10 and 15 per cent of the smuggled quantities," the British-educated Sarhan told Weekend Review.
However, experts say the number of drug addicts globally has been "stable" in the past years.
"The total number of drug addicts has not increased. It is pretty stable," Peitschmann of the UNODC said.
Reliable figures on drug smuggling and addicts around the world are hardly available but the illegal trade is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars.
According to earlier UN estimates, the global drug trade generated an estimated $321.6 billion in 2003 while the world GDP was $36 trillion in the same year.
The UN, moreover, believes there were between 155 million and 250 million people (3.5 per cent to 5.7 per cent of the population aged 15 to 64) using illicit substances at least once in 2008.
Cannabis users comprise the largest number of illicit drug users (129 million to 190 million people).
Amphetamine-group substances are the second most commonly used drugs, followed by cocaine and opiates.
The global area under opium cultivation has dropped by almost a quarter (23 per cent) since 2007, the UN report said.
By 2009, it had declined to 181,400 hectares and opium production fell from 8,890 metric tonnes in 2007 to 7,754 metric tonnes in 2009.
While global heroin production fell by 13 per cent, to 657 tonnes, in 2009, cocaine production declined between 12 and 18 per cent over the 2007-2009 period, the report added.
Both cocaine and heroin are considered the most widely used drugs in the West. And opium, the most "dangerous drugs in terms of health and security impacts worldwide", is the most widely used drug in the Middle East. This is "simply because of the proximity to the major opiate-producing regions of the world", said Nice.
The large volume of drugs seized in the Arab region and the lack of sufficient information make it difficult for experts to understand "exactly how big the size of the problem is".
Inadequate information also makes it hard to describe the Middle East as a "haven" for drugs. However, such a description, Peitschmann said, depends on the substance itself and the different regions.
For example, North America continues to be the haven for cocaine. But some pockets are emerging in the Far East and in South East Asia. They "are very small but the danger is that they [may] further develop", Peitschmann said.
On another front, nearly 90 per cent of opium products comes from Afghanistan, with Europe continuing to be the most "lucrative market for heroin". The drug is, by far, much more expensive in Europe than in its place of origin.
While the price of one gram of heroin in Afghanistan fluctuated in the first six months of the present year between $2.3 to $2.7, it would increase several times in Europe, reaching up to $77. This price, experts say, is for the drug in its heavily cut form.
"Assuming an average purity of about 25 per cent, you end up with a price of about $300 per pure gram of heroin," Peitschmann said.
Cannabis still the world's drug of choice
Cannabis remains the world's most widely produced and used illicit substance: It is grown in almost all countries of the world and is smoked by 130 million to 190 million people at least once a year — though these parameters are not very telling in terms of addiction. The fact that cannabis use is declining in some of its highest-value markets, namely North America and parts of Europe, is another indication of shifting patterns of drug abuse.
UNODC found evidence of indoor cultivation of cannabis for commercial purposes in 29 countries, particularly in Europe, Australia and North America. Indoor growing is a lucrative business and is increasingly a source of profit for criminal groups. Based on evidence gathered in 2009, Afghanistan is now the world's leading producer of cannabis resin and opium.
Source: UN report
