The New York Times – More people around the world are using illicit drugs than ever — more than 316 million in 2023.
Marijuana is the most used drug, followed by opioids and amphetamines. But it is the cocaine market that continues to break records year after year.
Global production reached a new high in 2023, racing to meet record demand and fueling new highs in cocaine-related deaths in many countries in recent years, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday.
An estimated 25 million people used cocaine worldwide in 2023 — up from 17 million a decade earlier. Production jumped by 34 percent from 2022.
Tracking the production and consumption of illicit drugs, including cocaine, is complex and time-consuming. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s annual World Drug Report, which this year includes data through 2023, is one of the few sources of global data on the illegal drug trade.
The coca plant, the main ingredient for cocaine, is primarily cultivated in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Colombia drove the recent increase in illegal cocaine production because of an expansion of coca cultivation areas and better yields from each acre.
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In contrast, coca cultivation in Bolivia remained stable in 2023, while Peru saw a slight decline.
In Colombia, farmers strip coca leaves by hand and mix them with gasoline and other chemicals to produce bricks of coca paste. Traffickers purchase the paste, which is then processed into cocaine in labs across Latin America.
While North America, South America and Europe remain the main markets, record-high cocaine production has allowed traffickers to expand into new regions, including Africa and Asia …
