Sources: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires; UNDCP estimates.

• The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) estimates that slightly fewer than 5,000 tons of illicit opium were produced in 1997. Production in 1997 was lower than in 1994, but is still considerably higher than in 1990. The dramatic growth rates experienced in the 1980s and early 1990s, however, have given way to a certain degree of stabilization since the mid-1990s.

• In terms of area under cultivation, UNDCP estimates that opium poppy cultivation in 1997 was just under 270,000 hectares, about the same as in 1990. Afghanistan and Myanmar were the main sources of increased cultivation/production over the last decade, with Afghanistan being the main source for the rise. Together these two countries accounted for about 80 per cent of global area under opium poppy cultivation and for 90 per cent of global illicit opium production in 1996-97.

• The third largest producer is Laos where production fluctuated between 100-150 tons in the 1990s. Cultivation and production in Thailand and Pakistan have decreased drastically over the years and more recently Vietnam has shown a downward trend. With a combined 12,000 hectares of opium poppy, Colombia and Mexico are relatively minor global opium/heroin producers. Heroin produced in these countries is shipped to the North American market. Opium/heroin production has remained stable in both countries for several years, due mainly to vigorous opium poppy eradication policies.
  
• Taking into account seizures of opium (210 tons on average in 1995-96) and the amounts used for domestic purposes, consumption in neighbouring regions and losses in transport (in total some 30 per cent of production less seizures of opium) UNDCP estimates that about 3,300 tons of opium were available for production of heroin in 1997. Applying a 10:1 conversion rate, (opium to heroin) production of heroin in 1997 amounted to 330 tons. Less seizures of heroin (some 30 tons on average in 1995-96) about 300 tons of heroin are likely to have been available in the consumer markets.

Coca
Global cultivation estimates of coca bush and production estimates of coca leaf *

Sources: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires; UNDCP estimates.

• Most of the world's illicit cocaine comes from the Andean countries (Peru, Colombia and Bolivia). There are indications that small plots exist in other Latin American countries, notably Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela.

• Following two decades of massive increase, global coca cultivation and production are showing a downward trend in the 1990s.
  
• About 180,000 hectares are currently estimated to be under coca cultivation, producing more than 300,000 tons of coca leaf. (Given low yield estimates used for these calculations, actual production of coca leaf may be higher than indicated by the figures above).
  
• Strong declines are reported from Peru (40% reduction in two years), smaller ones from Bolivia. Production in Colombia, by contrast, is increasing in areas outside government control, despite vigorous crops elimination and law efforts.

• Current coca leaf production estimates still have Peru as the largest producer of coca leaf (118,000 tons in 1997). Production in Bolivia and Colombia is about the same (93,000 tons and 91,000 tons, respectively). However, the yield estimates applied for Colombia are low. As large-scale coca-bush cultivations in Colombia are now more widespread, yields have probably increased as well. Actual production of coca leaf in Colombia exceeds that of Bolivia, and is probably close to that of Peru.
  
• Applying the most conservative conversion ratios (coca leaf to cocaine), at least 800 tons of cocaine were produced out of the 1997 coca-leaf harvest; applying a slightly less cautious overall conversion ratio of 1000:3 (which is easy for cocaine manufacturers to reach), the estimated amount of illicit coca-leaf production for 1997 would have yielded about 1,000 tons of cocaine. With seizures of around 300 tons of cocaine per annum (1995-96), 500-700 tons of cocaine may have thus been available for consumption. Seizures of coca leaf of 700 tons per annum (1995-96), equivalent to 2.1 tons of cocaine, are almost negligible quantities and do not change the overall picture. The same is true for domestic consumption of coca leaf which is largely covered by traditional coca-leaf production.

  Cannabis

• Illicit cultivation of cannabis is more widespread than opium poppy and coca leaf. Estimates of the actual areas where cannabis grows are, however, subject to far larger margins of error than is the case of opium poppy and coca leaf. According to information provided by Governments to UNDCP, the global area where cannabis is cultivated and/or grows wild may range from 670,000 hectares to 1,800,000 hectares, (three to six times the areas under cultivation of opium poppy or coca bush). Estimates supplied by Governments suggest that global production of marijuana and hashish may be close to 500,000 tons per annum (based on an estimate of 940,000 hectares under cultivation/wild growth).
  
• The largest areas under wild growth of cannabis are found in the countries of the former Soviet Union, notably Russia, Kazakhstan and other central Asian countries. Morocco, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been identified as major producers of hashish. Hashish production in Lebanon, by contrast, has declined sharply in recent years. The largest producers of marijuana in Latin America are Mexico and Colombia followed by Brazil, Jamaica and various countries in Central America; South Africa and Malawi seem to be among the largest producers of marijuana in Africa, though production of marijuana is also widespread in large parts of Eastern and Western Africa, notably Nigeria and Ghana. The largest producers in Asia are a number of countries in the South and South-East Asia region, including Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Cannabis is also grown in some Pacific countries such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Western Samoa. The industrialized countries, notably the USA, Australia, Canada and a number of European countries, also produce significant amounts of illicit cannabis, in some cases using indoor cultivation and the latest hydroponic technologies.

• While cannabis production in Latin America has shown a downward trend in the 1990s, there seems to have been an increase in cannabis cultivation in many parts of Asia, Africa and Europe in the 1990s.

  Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS)

• There are no official estimates of the extent of clandestine ATS manufacture. Using numbers of illicit laboratories detected as an indicator, however, data suggest a strong increase over the last two decades. Between 1980 and 1994 the number of clandestine laboratories detected manufacturing ATS increased more than six-fold. Over this period, ATS accounted on average for 38 per cent of all detections of laboratories at the global level.

• At the global level, clandestine methamphetamine manufacture appears to be most widespread. It is the main ATS in North America and the Far East while amphetamine and substances of the ecstasy group (MDMA, MDA, MDEA) are the predominant ATS in Europe. In the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, methamphetamine and methcathinone (ephedrone) are the main illicit ATS. The strongest increase in recent years has been in the clandestine manufacture of the substances of the ecstasy group. Most of this (both domestic abuse and trafficking abroad) takes place in Europe. Manufacture of substances of the ecstasy group in North America is almost exclusively for the domestic market.

B. Distribution and Illicit Trafficking

Heroin

• Global seizures of heroin increased from 1.7 tons in 1975 to 14.2 tons in 1985 and to 28.2 tons in 1996. The peak had been reached in 1995 (31.1 tons), following the 1994 bumper harvest of opium. Overall growth rates of seizures in the 1990s have been lower than in the last two decades.

Global seizures of heroin

Source: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires.

• In 1996, 40 per cent of global heroin seizures were made in Europe (including Eastern Europe and Turkey), 24 per cent in South-West Asia (Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan), 22 per cent in East- and South-East Asia (in China 6 per cent) in the Americas (5 per cent in North America including Mexico) and 5 per cent in South-Asia (mainly India). Heroin seizures in the Middle East region accounted for less than 3 per cent, and in Africa and Oceania for less than 1 per cent of global heroin seizures. If calculations are based instead on a 1994-96 average to minimize distortions (due to large quantities of heroin randomly seized in any particular year), Europe´s share in total heroin seizures drops to 36 per cent; the share of South-West Asia rises to 30 per cent, while the share of South-East Asia falls to 19 per cent (of which China 12 per cent). The share of the Americas changes only slightly to 7 per cent (of which 6 per cent North America). The shares of the other regions remain basically unchanged.

• Over the last decade, South-west Asia (particularly Afghanistan) has been the largest supplier of the opium used to manufacture heroin for Europe, clearly overtaking South-East Asia in importance. A large share of Southwest Asian heroin and morphine goes to Europe, passing through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and along the so-called Balkan Route, (or via Central Asia, Russia, and/or Caucasus) accounting for 70 to 90 per cent of all heroin seizures in Europe in recent years. Heroin consumed in North America, by contrast, originates largely in Southeast Asia (Myanmar), involving China, Thailand, as well as Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and some times African countries as transit points. Virtually all heroin produced in Mexico and Colombia feeds the North American market.

Cocaine

• The bulk of the processing of the raw material into cocaine still occurs in Colombia. Bolivia and Peru, however, are becoming increasingly important producers of powder cocaine in their own right. By far the largest number of clandestine laboratories are still dismantled every year by the authorities in Colombia. One major production facility, destroyed by the Colombian authorities in early 1997, had the capacity to produce 500 to 600 tons of cocaine hydrochloride per year (reported by Interpol). This would have been sufficient to cover some 60 per cent of (estimated) global cocaine production.

• Global seizures of cocaine (base and salts) increased from 2.4 tons in 1975 to 56.3 tons in 1985 and peaked in 1991(323 tons). In 1996 cocaine seizures amounted to 316 tons. While growth in cocaine seizures in the 1980s was far stronger than in heroin seizures, this changed completely in the 1990s. Nevertheless, seizures of cocaine are currently more than 10 times larger than heroin seizures in terms of quantity. In terms of number of seizure cases, however, cocaine accounts for only 42,100 cases (4 per cent of all drug seizure cases reported to UNDCP in 1996) while heroin accounts for 214,200 cases (22 per cent of all seizure cases).

Global seizures of cocaine

Source: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires.

• In 1996, 89 per cent of all cocaine seizures worldwide took place in the Americas, of which North America (including Mexico) accounted for 48 per cent. The share of Europe (including Eastern Europe and Turkey) was 10 per cent; the rest of the world accounted for 0.2 per cent. While the relatively large North American market has been losing importance in the 1990s, other relatively small markets, notably those of Latin America, Europe and Africa are showing a trend in the opposite direction.

• The main trafficking routes are from the Andean countries, through Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean region to the North American market. Some 70 per cent of total cocaine imports transit through Mexico. Alternative trafficking routes, particularly those by sea and air, connect South America, Africa and Europe. Spain and Netherlands are the major entry points of cocaine directly shipped to Europe. Much of the cocaine transported to various destinations in Africa (mostly in the Southern Cone of Africa and in Western Africa) for re-export to Europe transits Brazil.

  Cannabis

• Trafficking in cannabis is far more widespread than in heroin or cocaine. In 1996, 1,367 tons of cannabis plants, 2,524 tons of cannabis herb (marijuana) and 813 tons of cannabis resin (hashish) were seized, totalling more than 4,700 tons of cannabis products, significantly more than the 315 tons of cocaine or the 28 tons of heroin seized in 1996.
• While seizures of hashish have been growing in the 1990s, and were twice as large in 1996 than a decade earlier, marijuana seizures fell in the second half of the 1980s and remained at the lower level in the 1990s.

Global seizures of cannabis

Source: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires (* preliminary figures).

• In 1996, 69 per cent of marijuana seizures took place in the Americas of which 52 per cent in North America (including Mexico), 13 per cent in Africa, 11 per cent in Europe and 7 per cent in the Asia and the Pacific region.

• In the case of hashish, 57 per cent of global seizures in 1996 took place in Europe, 27 per cent in Asia of which the bulk were in the Near and Middle East Region (25 per cent); 11 per cent in Africa and only 5 per cent in the Americas.
  
• While the North American market is dominated by marijuana trafficking, Europe has a significantly higher share in hashish trafficking. The share of marijuana as a proportion of total marijuana and hashish seizures in 1996 was 97 per cent in North America and 38 per cent in Europe.
  
• The main production centres for export of marijuana to the US market are Mexico, Colombia and Jamaica. Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia are the main sources of hashish destined for the European market. Herbal cannabis from Colombia, and also from South-East Asia, notably Cambodia and Thailand, is increasingly found in the European market. South-East Asian cannabis is also trafficked to Australia, though Australia has an important cannabis production of its own. The final destinations of South African cannabis exports are the markets in North America as well as the United Kingdom. But other African countries, including Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, if taken together, also constitute important production sites and/or transit points for cannabis shipments to Europe. Spain and the Netherlands are major entry points for cannabis destined for markets in Europe.

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS)

The main trafficking areas are Europe, the Far East region and North America. Trafficking in ATS takes place mainly within the same region. However, trafficking of ATS precursors (diversions) tends to be inter-regional.

• Global seizures of ATS (excluding ecstasy) increased from 281 kg in 1976 to 1.4 tons in 1990 and 5.5 tons in 1995 and 14.5 tons in 1996. This is equivalent to an average annual growth of 22 per cent over the 1976-1996 period, a higher growth rate than for heroin (13 per cent). In the 1990s, average annual growth of seizures of ATS (excluding ecstasy) amounted to 48 per cent. No other substance - except ecstasy, which is part of the ATS, has shown such high growth rates in the 1990s.

Global seizures of ATS (excluding ecstasy)

Source: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires.

• Of the 14.6 tons of ATS (except ecstasy) seized in 1996, Europe accounted for 56 per cent (of which almost all was Western Europe), East and South-East Asia for 31 per cent (of which China alone was 11 per cent), North America for 10 per cent and Australia for 2 per cent. Africa, the Near and Middle East and Latin America accounted for the remaining 1 per cent.

C. Consumption

* Figures cannot be added to arrive at a total number of drug abusers. Poly-drug abuse has become a common phenomenon in almost all countries. In several countries, total illicit drug consumption is
   estimated to be about one third higher than total cannabis consumption.

** This figure may be an overestimate. The total number has been extrapolated from a small number of countries reporting to UNDCP.

Sources: UNDCP, Annual Reports Questionnaires; UNDCP mission reports, UNDCP Country Profiles, UNDCP country Programme Frameworks; United States Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports.

Heroin

• Global heroin abuse increased in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in Asian countries, as well as in Western Europe and parts of Africa and Latin America. Eastern Europe and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are also witnessing a similar trend.
  
• The total number of heroin abusers has been estimated at around 8 million people worldwide in the 1990s (annual prevalence). This is equivalent to about 0.14 per cent of the global population. The most widespread abuse of heroin is in Europe, Asia and Oceania with prevalence rates close to 0.2 per cent of total population. Heroin abuse in South America and in Africa are below the global average.

Cocaine

• Annual prevalence of global cocaine abuse is estimated to affect some 13 million people or 0.23 per cent of the global population. By far the largest market for cocaine is North America, with annual expenditure for cocaine in the United States alone reaching some $30 billion (US Government sources). Annual prevalence of cocaine (1992-94) amounted to 1.7 per cent of the population in North America, compared with 0.2 per cent in Europe. Most of Europe´s cocaine consumption is still concentrated in Western Europe (0.35 per cent of total population). Abuse levels in South America (1.2 per cent) are clearly above the global average. In both North America and in Western Europe abuse of cocaine is now more widespread than abuse of heroin.

Cannabis

• Annual prevalence of cannabis abuse is estimated to affect 2.4 per cent of the global population. Cannabis abuse is a global phenomenon far more widespread than abuse of cocaine (0.23 per cent) or heroin (0.14 per cent).

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS)

• ATS grew more strongly than any other illicit substance in the 1990s. Some 30 million people (0.5 per cent of the global population) are estimated to be abusing ATS. This is a higher figure than for heroin or cocaine. In the Far East, methamphetamine is more widely abused than cocaine or heroin. In Europe, ATS (particularly amphetamine and "ecstasy") are the second most widely abused category of illicit drug after cannabis.