1. Briefing to Member States Information under embargo
World Drug Report 2016
Briefing to Member States
16 June 2016
Information under embargo
until 23 June 2016

2. Overall prevalence of illicit drug use has remained rather stable in recent years, affecting around 5.2% of the population age

3. Global average: 43.5
Total:
207,400

4. Proportion of women brought into formal contact with the criminal justice system for drug related offences,
Number of women arrested for drug-related offences increased, but the proportion of women in drug-related cases decreased
While 1 in 3 persons using drugs worldwide is a women, the proportion of women in formal contact with the criminal justice system for drug-related offences has been far smaller; around 10% over the period (11 per cent for drug trafficking and 9% for drug possession related offences).
The proportion of women arrested for drug trafficking offences has even declined between 1998 and 2014.
The proportion of female arrests for drug trafficking over the period has been above average for sedatives and tranquilisers (i.e. substances often used by women) as well as for opioids, amphetamine-type stimulants and, to a lesser extent for NPS and cocaine. In contrast, the female proportion of cannabis related offences was below average.

5. Trafficking over the internet, notably via the darknet, has increased strongly in recent years.
A global survey of more than 100,000 Internet users (three quarters of whom had taken illegal drugs) in 50
countries in late 2014 suggested that the proportion of drug users purchasing drugs via the Internet had increased
from just 1.2 per cent in 2000 to 4.9 per cent in 2009, 16.4 per cent in 2013 and 25.3 per cent in 2014.
The proportion of Internet users making use of the “dark net” for drug purchases had also increased, reaching 6.4 per cent
(lifetime) in 2014, including 4.5 per cent (70 per cent of 6.4 per cent) who had purchased drugs over the “dark net”
in the previous 12 months.
Among “recent” drug users, the proportion rose by more than 25 per cent from 2013 to 2014 (from 4.6 to 5.8 per
cent). In some countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, the proportion of recent years making use of the darknet for their drug purchases more than doubled between 2012 and 2014.
The survey found that ecstasy was very often purchased via the darknet, as well as LSD, cannabis and cocaine.
Purchases of heroin or methamphetamine via the darknet, in contrast, were less common.
Some of those advantages for purchasing drugs via the darknet were related to the drug products themselves, which were reported to be generally of better quality and more readily available. Other advantages included the fact that the purchaser’s interactions were virtual, thus decreasing the risk to personal safety during transactions, including through the absence of exposure to physical violence; in addition, there was a perceived decrease in the risk of being apprehended by law enforcement authorities.
This may help explain why, in general, drug users seem ready to pay a premium for drugs purchased via the “dark net” and why people who have never previously used drugs may be tempted to purchase them online. Around 4 per cent of “dark net” drug users had not used any drugs prior to accessing them through the “dark net”. At the same time, 30 per cent of people who purchased drugs via the “dark net” reported having consumed a wider range of drugs than they did before they began purchasing drugs via the “dark net

6. Polydrug use
Injecting practices

8. Interception rates on the rise
The interception rate of opiates doubled following the 1998 UNGASS.

9. Opiate production and consumption fluctuations
Opium production is characterized by strong annual fluctuations. In 2015 global opium production declined by almost 40%.
Heroin seizures and heroin consumption, contrast, appear to be far more stable.
The WDR analyzed a number of hypotheses. Consumers can react to changes in supply by either increasing or decreasing per capita consumption or the total number of consumers may change. Some adjustments may take this form. The most important adjustment to changes in opium production, however, appear to be changes in opium inventories. Once there is a surplus, opium is stocked, and once there has been a poor opium harvest, opium accumulated from previous years is used for heroin production. This allows for a rather smooth production of heroin and supply of heroin to the consumer markets. This means, however, also that despite of the almost 40% decline in opium production in 2015 no immediate heroin shortage on the markets should be expected. There would be a need for a sustained decline in global opium production in order to really see an impact on the heroin markets.

10. Long and short term fluctuation in cocaine use
Houshold survey data for Europe also show decline over the period, including a rather stable situation over the period.
The overall stable patterns in recent years are also reflected in the analysis of waste-water data (based on the analysis of benzoylecgonine, one of the main cocaine metabolites) across 67 European cities over the period. At the same time, the data also show important differences in the amounts of cocaine consumed in various cities. Important differences of benzoylecgonine (and thus in cocaine consumption) are not only found across countries but often also within different cities located in the same country.

12. One of the problematic developments in recent years has been the growing market for ‘captagon’ tables in the Middle East.
Captagon used to be phenetylline though over the last decade tablets containing amphetamine mixed with caffeine is sold in illicit markets in the Near and Middle east under the name of captagon.
For many years captagon was produced in South-East Europe, including Bulgaria and Turkey. In recent years, however, Syria appears to have become the main origin of such tablets. They are heavily used in Syria among the various fighting groups but also make their way to other countries in the region, inlcuding Jordania and Saudi Arabia.

13. NPS
One major trend over the last few years has been the growing importance of NPS across the world.
Between 2008 and 2015 total of 644 NPS were reported by 102 countries and territories to the UNODC early warning advisory on NPS. (This compares with 244 substances under international control; 120 under the 1961 Convention and 124 under the 1971 Convention).
In NPS have been reported to UNODC for the first time, up from 66 in 2014.
Between 2012 and 2014 most substances reported for the first time belonged to the group of synthetic cannabinoids.
The data reported for 2015 showed a different pattern: 20 synthetic cathinones (stimulants) were reported for the first time, almost as many as synthetic cannabinoids (21). Moreover, 21 ‘other substances‘ were reported for the first time, including synthetic opioids (e.g. fentanyl derivatives) and sedatives (e.g. benzodiazepines).
The NPS market is highly dynamic. Many new substances emerge, but data also show that several NPS reported in previous years, do not seem to be any longer on the market.

14. The World Drug Problem and Sustainable Development
Chapter 2:
The World Drug Problem and Sustainable Development

15. Development and drug use – the static picture
National indicators show that the health impact increases with development levels
But subnational indicators show that lower socioeconomic status goes hand in hand with drug use disorders….
The impact of income on drug use depends on the type of drug

16. Marginalization and drug use disorders
Drug users are more likely
to be unemployed….
Higher socioeconomic groups have a greater propensity to initiate drug use than lower socioeconomic groups, but it is the lower socioeconomic groups that pay the higher price as they are more likely to become drug dependent.
… and unemployed people are
more likely to be drug users

18. Women are a minority among drug users with:
Own drug use patterns
Own vulnerabilities and needs
Violence
Stigma
Drug use in the family
Suitability of continuum of care
Access to treatment
Youth
Children

19. Two streams of intervention: mutually reinforcing but not
blind to each other
General development initiatives can counter
or compound the world drug problem:
- Thailand
- Andean countries (1960s-70s)
Need to be sensitive to vulnerabilities
Drug supply reduction interventions can foster or hinder economic development
Afghanistan:
2000/2001
2005 opium ban (Nangarhar)
Need to be targeted but mainstreamed

20. Development and drug markets – the dynamic picture

21. Environmental impact of the
drug supply chain

22. Violence is not a foregone conclusion of drug trafficking

23. Violence is not a foregone conclusion of drug trafficking
What determines violence levels?
Centralization
Violence-targeting strategies
Long-term versus short-term
Related parameters:
- Rule of law
- Corruption

24. Drug law offences and imprisonment
Drug law offences have not declined like other crimes. But:
- Almost a third of all prisoners are on pre-trial detention
- Among convicted prisoners, 18% are held for drug-related offences
- Among these, less than a quarter are held for personal consumption offences
Imprisonment of drug offenders has an impact on people who use drugs as well as the criminal justice system
The excessive use of imprisonment for drug-related offences of a minor nature is ineffective in reducing recidivism
Alternatives to imprisonment can have a positive impact on people who use drugs

25. Partnership

26. Conclusions and policy recommendations
Development and countering the world drug problem have to work in symbiosis.
Development initiatives need to be sensitive to drugs vulnerabilities;
Response to drug problem needs to be mindful of broad development aims;
AD has its rightful place as a targeted initiative which can be mainstreamed into broader development programmes.
Drug policies need to:
be sensitive to gender, environmentally friendly and based on scientific evidence;
overcome the stigmatization of drug users;
ensure that no one is left behind.
Drug use and its health consequences should be prevented and treated in prisons.
Heroin still requires the attention of the international community.

27. THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION
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