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Ecstasy And Methamphetamine Increasingly Becoming First Choice Drugs For Many In East And South-East Asia According To New UNODC Report
Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 29 Nov 2010 0:00 PST
According to a new UNODC report, amphetamine-type stimulants or ATS in particular methamphetamine, are widely used in East and South-East Asia and are now ranked among the top-three drugs of use in every single one of the 11 countries reviewed. Moreover, in some East and South-East Asian countries, ATS have become the primary drug threat, displacing traditionally-used drugs such as heroin, opium or even cannabis.
UNODCs latest ATS report estimates that between a range of 3.4 million and 20.7 million people in the region have used amphetamines in the past year a sizeable portion of the estimated 14 million to 53 million global users. This is worrying in terms of health and law enforcement.
Speaking on the spread of ATS and the marked implications for health and welfare, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, noted: The increased manufacture and use of ATS is a worrying trend and a growing health challenge for the region. While overall development levels in many countries are climbing, and the lives of millions are improving, the spread of ATS use is a sad and unnecessary situation and one which must be tackled with immediate urgency.
The report, Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants and Other Drugs: Asia and the Pacific, provides a consolidated review of the current developments with regard to the illicit manufacturing, trafficking and use of ATS in Asia and the Pacific. The study indicates that in recent years these drugs have become an increasingly widespread health and organized crime threat in Asia and the Pacific. In South Asia in particular large licit chemical and pharmaceutical industries offer organized criminal groups an attractive base from where to manufacture and market ATS.
Developed under the UNODC Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, the report highlights the spread of ATS a market which includes amphetamine, methamphetamine, methcathinone, and ecstasy-group substances, and one which generates enormous global revenues. In East and South-East Asia, ATS have become the leading drugs of use, in many cases replacing plant-based narcotics which have previously been the regions drugs of choice.
Another critical issue highlighted in this years report (as was the case in 2008) is the continued growth in the use and trafficking of ketamine in East and South-East Asia. As a cheaper alternative to drugs such as ecstasy, and with wide availability due to its medical uses, the growth in this drug is a worrying trend. In 2009, 6.9 metric tons of ketamine were seized in the region, up from 6.3 metric tons the previous year. About 85 percent of global ketamine seizures were made in East and South-East Asia in 2009, with the use of this drug reportedly increasing in several countries and territories, with Hong Kong (SAR) now listing ketamine as its primary drug of use.
Regrettably, drug treatment services for users of ATS and other synthetic drugs in many parts of Asia and the Pacific are under-resourced and unable to keep up with the increasing number of ATS users. Most drug treatment services in the region are still aimed at users of heroin, opium and cannabis despite this shift toward ATS use. In Cambodia and Japan for instance, 50 percent of drug users in the countrys drug treatment centres receive treatment for methamphetamines, while in the Philippines the figure sits at 59 percent. In Thailand, 82 percent or more than 4 out of every 5 drug users who received drug treatment in 2009 were treated for methamphet-amine pill use.
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