Cocaine production, seizures, and use reached all-time highs in 2023, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed in its latest world drug report published on Thursday.
UNODC warned that cocaine is the world’s fastest-growing illicit drug market. Production skyrocketed to 3,708 tons in 2023 — a 340 percent increase from UNOC’s 2022 records. The drug, once largely confined to Latin America, is now spreading to Western Europe as criminal organizations from the Western Balkans increase their influence over the market.
The dramatic increase, UNODC explained in its key findings, is primarily due to an increase in the size of illicit coca bush cultivation areas in Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producer. Updated yield data measured by the U.N. agency found
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