UNODC

Interview with the UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov

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Mr. Fedotov about OTS, Afganistan, NGOs and many other issues..

    Afghanis: beholden to the markets

    The UNODC recently released its annual report concerning opium cultivation in Afghanistan. Unsurprisingly, levels of opium production have continued to rise despite more efforts made at eradication. In fact, the amount of area under opium poppy cultivation has risen to some of the highest levels ever seen. So what exactly is driving this rise in production levels? The simple answer is the opium market, which like every other market is driven by supply and demand.

      NATO: huge morphine seizures

      On Monday 2nd January NATO forces in Afghanistan announced that they had made record seizures of illegal narcotics in 2011 and claimed that this had dealt a significant blow to the Taliban-led insurgency. Brigadier General Carsten Jacobsen claimed that “counter-narcotic operations are successfully disrupting the insurgent’s ability to process opium into heroin. We will continue to choke off revenue generated by the sale of illicit drugs in 2012.”

        Bolivia Traffickers double cocaine manufacturing

        The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) informed last week that Bolivia Traffickers have improved the cocaine manufacturing to double.

        According to one of their representatives, the production of cocaine has become more sophisticated. Under the influence of Colombian cartels, Bolivian cocaine producers have introduced more efficient chemical technology applied in pharmaceutical and petrochemical industry.  Also, according to Bolivian authorities, they have started using ground cocaine and cement in the fabrication of drugs.

          Soaring execution rates in Iran prompt condemnation of UNODC

           

          The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has reiterated its intention to support a number of Middle Eastern countries in co-ordinating a trans-regional attack on the trafficking of heroin from opium-rich Afghanistan.  

            Can Wholesale Drug Prices really be measured at all?

            Only recently, The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (The EMCDDA) published its latest report titles, ‘Pilot Study on Wholesale Drug Prices in Europe’.

            In short, the report aims to create a unified means in which countries within Europe may be able to collate information relating to whole-drug prices (WDP) whilst allowing for the way in which countries vary in the underlying procedures.

            For the EMCDDA then, the task in question is a serious and essential one.

              Measuring the global drug market

              When we imagine drug dealing we often picture Columbian gangsters with suitcases full of money, often literally bursting at the seams. We frequently see images on the news of millions of dollars seized by DEA agents or kilograms of heroin discovered by customs officials. All of this shows us that drug dealing appears to be a very lucrative market and that being an efficient drug smuggler can make one very very rich. 

                Filthy Financiers & Dirty Money

                Published only recently, the UNODC has released its latest report titled, ‘Estimating Illicit Financial Flows Resulting from Drug Trafficking and Other Transnational Organized Crimes’.

                 

                  The link between African drug trafficking and terrorism

                  Drug trade accounts for nearly 1% of the world’s GDP, and over $320 billion generated annually. Africa is one of the world’s largest players in the drug trafficking industry: 50% of non-U.S.-bound cocaine passes through West Africa, accounting for 13% of the global flow. Drug trafficking poses a risk to government and political stability, the rule of law, and the quality of regulation in the country.

                    UN drugs chief sticks to punitive policy

                    International efforts to tackle the "global threat" of illicit drugs must be "rejuvenated" in accordance with a 50-year-old convention despite a series of major failings, the head of the UN drugs and crime agency has told The Independent.
                    This week, Yury Fedotov acknowledged that global opium production increased by almost 80 per cent between 1998 and 2009, and the international market for drugs is now worth as much as $320bn (£199bn) a year – making it the world's 30th-largest industry.

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