The Worldwide Heroine Users

June 30, 2010 - PRLog -- The yearly World Drug Report from the United Nations says that opium cultivation globally, used to make heroin, has decreased 13% to approximately 657 tons.

Consumption of heroine is still very strong in Western countries such as the France, United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, although the national level of heroin use is on the decline in the United States.

•   China consumes 45 metric tons, or 13%
•   Iran consumes 5% at 17 metric tons
•   Southeast Asia is also at 5%
•   India is also 5%
•   United States and Canada used 22 metric tons, just over 6%
•   Pakistan uses 6% at 19 metric tons
•   Africa uses 24 metric tons, or 7%
•   Russia consumes 21% or 70 metric tons
•   Europe tops the list with 80 metric tons, or uses 26%.

Around 5,000 heroin and cocaine addicts gather night and day in Madrid’s Las Baranquillas, which is believed to be Europe’s largest drug market.

Other sources claim the majority of the world’s opium is consumed by Afghanistan’s neighbours, Pakistan and Iran. The opiate market is interrelated with grave national and international security problems and social instability -- especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Golden Crescent in Afghanistan is now an estimated source of 92% of the world’s opium. Much of it grown in Taliban controlled regions.

Antoinio Mariea Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, said “We see a region (the Golden Triangle) that is rapidly moving toward an opium-free status,” as the Golden Triangle, of Southeast Asia, now produces only a very small portion of the world’s opium.

The northernmost reaches of Laos, Thailand and Myamar, produced more than 70% of the world’s opium three decades ago. Today they produce less than 5%.

Crackdowns on opium farmers, economic pressure from China and a switch by criminal syndicates to methamphetamine production, seem to have created the largest impact. At the same time, some rebel groups that once were financed with drug money, now declare they are advising farmers to do away with their poppy fields.

Myanmar’s central government, have disallowed poppy cultivation and openly welcomed Chinese investment in sugar cane, rubber and tea plantations, casinos and other businesses. A group that has had long ties to the heroin business, a faction of the Shan State Army, says it is leading eradication efforts.

The foremost producer of processed cocaine is still Columbia.

In general the UNODC report says that drug consumption is moving away from opiates and cocaine and moving more and more towards synthetic drugs like amphetamine-type stimulants.

Costa, of the UNODC, says that drug taking should be a health issue, rather than a law enforcement issue.

For more information about Worldwide Heroine Users, visit website
http://www.tropicpost.com/world-report-on-world-heroin-us...

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