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The Latest Breaking News from UNODC

War-wracked Myanmar is now the world's top opium producer, surpassing Afghanistan, says UN agency

Myanmar, already wracked by a brutal civil war, has regained the unenviable title of world’s biggest opium producer

The Independent UK

Myanmar Overtakes Afghanistan As World's Biggest Opium Producer: UN

Myanmar became the world's biggest producer of opium in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government's crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday.

International Business Times

Research Reveals Global Femicide Crisis Despite Homicide Rate Decreasing

Despite the overall homicide figures decreasing, more women and girls have been killed as a result of gender-based violence across the globe.

International Business Times UK

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Femicides at a twenty-year peak across globe | Data

UN study finds 88,900 women/girls killed in 2022 due to gender-related factors; highest in 20 years. Data shows 55% of female victims killed by family/partners, 12% of male victims. Rate of femicides per 1 lakh women highest in Africa (2.8) & Americas (1.5), Asia (0.8). India saw small decline in…

The Hindu

‘Cheaper than beer’: Laos meth prices plummet as Myanmar chaos fuels trade

Front-line workers say methamphetamine pills are being sold for as little as $0.25 each.

Al Jazeera

Afghan opium poppy cultivation plunges by 95 percent under Taliban: UN

The restriction on poppy cultivation has decimated a key trade for hundreds of thousands of farmers and labourers.

Al Jazeera

Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 billion after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation

A report from the U.N. drugs agency says Afghan farmers lost more than $1 billion of cash income from opium sales after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation

The Independent UK

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Highest prevalence of opioid use disorders in eastern parts of India: UNODC report

The highest prevalence of people with opioid use disorders in India is observed in the eastern parts of the country, while the largest numbers of people with opioid use disorders are found in north-western India as well as in some of the central-western States, the latest World Drug Report 2023…

The Hindu

How the global drugs trade is changing

There has been a sharp rise in the number of people taking illegal drugs globally over the past decade as “increasingly agile trafficking networks are compounding intersecting global crises”.

The Week

UN anti-drug agency warns there is no let-up in methamphetamine trade from Asia's Golden Triangle

The United Nations anti-drug agency is warning that the huge trade in illegal drugs such as methamphetamine from Southeast Asia's ‘Golden Triangle’ shows no signs of slowing down

The Independent UK

UN says organised crime shifting drugs routes in Southeast Asia

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says almost 151 tonnes of methamphetamine seized in Southeast, East Asia in 2022.

Al Jazeera

Two Rights Groups: Iran Executions Surge in Bid to 'Spread Fear'

Two rights groups revealed on Thursday that Iran is using death penalty as an “execution machine” aimed at spreading fear as protests shook the country in 2022. According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France's Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), Iran hanged 75 percent more people in 2022…

Asharq Al-Awsat

Cocaine production hits record high as post-Covid demand picks up in Europe

Global production of cocaine has jumped dramatically over the past two years following an initial slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the first report dedicated to the global cocaine market from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

France 24

Cocaine smuggling and production at record high since pandemic retreat

New UN report says there has been a 35% spike in 2020-21 in the production of coca, the drug’s base ingredient

The Guardian - US

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Al Jazeera

‘Tip of the spear’: Battling the Golden Triangle’s drug lords

A low-intensity but bloody battle is being fought to contain the flow of drugs from Southeast Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’.

Al Jazeera

Q&A: The opium surge in Southeast Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’

The revival of opium production in the Golden Triangle comes on top of a booming synthetic drug industry.

The Conversation

Despite the Taliban's pledge to eradicate opium, the poppy trade still flourishes in Afghanistan

The Taliban have always had a complicated relationship with the opium trade. As a narcotic, opium is haram, or forbidden under Islamic law. But at the same time opium production has tended to increase in areas they have controlled, where local leaders reportedly raise money to fund their operations by…

Daily Mirror

Russian soldiers must be on drugs to commit 'very violent acts' seen in Ukraine

Kamran Niaz, an epidemiologist for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), tells The Mirror how the horrors seen in Bucha, Kherson and Kharkiv can't be carried out by people with a "normal mindset"

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Bangkok Post

Myanmar opium cultivation surging under military rule: UN report

Opium cultivation in military-ruled Myanmar jumped 33% last year, reversing a six-year downward trend in the strife-torn country, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

Reuters

Myanmar opium cultivation surging under military rule - UN report

Opium cultivation in military-ruled Myanmar jumped 33% last year, reversing a six-year downward trend in the strife-torn country, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

Al Jazeera

Opium cultivation surges since Myanmar military seized power: UN

Opium poppy was cultivated on more than 40,000 hectares in Myanmar last year, a 33 percent increase compared with 2021.

Reuters

COVID-19 cut known human trafficking, but Ukraine war a risk: U.N

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the first drop in the known number of human-trafficking victims in 20 years as trafficking opportunities and policing were reduced, but the Ukraine war has probably now caused a new surge, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera

Thai army kills 5 suspected drug smugglers near ‘Golden Triangle’

Almost 500,000 methamphetamine pills found after clash between Thai forces and suspected smugglers in Thailand’s north.

Radio France Internationale

Substance abuse among India's youth hits emergency levels

India officially has 15.8 million children between the ages of 10 and 17 who are addicted to drugs. Experts warn that the true number is far higher. The National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre has called for an urgent reaction to a crisis situation.

Reuters

Colombia's oil theft soars, leaving trail of environmental harm

In a clearing of Colombia's Pacific jungle, the dense canopy encircles an area of desolation left by a clandestine refinery, where oil waste blackens everything underfoot, seeping into the soil and coating the vegetation.

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