INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING

• Every Year, 26th June is celebrated as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking or World Drug Day.
• UNODC World Drug Report 2022 was released on the occasion of the world Drug Day
• UNODC World Drug Report 2022 highlights trends on cannabis post-legalization, environmental impacts of illicit drugs, and drug use among women and youth.
• Addressing drug challenges in health and humanitarian crises.
• The focus of United Nations Office On Drug And Crime (UNODC) is to spread awareness about it so that a world free of drug abuse can be created.
• On 7th December 1987, the United Nations General Assembly decided to observe 26th June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
• It did so to strengthen their efforts in order to achieve the goal of making the society free of drug abuse.
• The focus is to create awareness about the hazardous impacts of drug abuse on the society and to create a world without it.
• In 2022, the world continues to witness widespread humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Ukraine and elsewhere, while the Covid-19 pandemic is still a major global health crisis.
• The synthetic drug crisis also requires nimble and adaptable solutions.

Key Highlights of the World Drug Report 2022

India:

• India is one of the world’s single largest opiate markets in terms of users and would likely be vulnerable to increased supply.
• This is because of the intensification of trafficking in opiates originating in Afghanistan may be taking place eastwards, in addition to southwards and westwards along the traditional Balkan route
• Consequences could range from expanded use to increased levels of trafficking and associated organised crime.
• India has the fourth largest quantities of opium seized in 2020 at 5.2 tons and the third-highest amount of morphine was also seized in the same year at 0.7 tons.
• About 3.8 tons of heroin were seized in 2020 in India, the fifth-highest in the world.
• In 2020, authorities in India had announced for the first time dismantling of a major international criminal network trafficking non-medical tramadol and other psychoactive substances on the dark web

Recommendations of the Report

• There is need to devote the necessary resources and attention to addressing every aspect of the world drug problem, including the provision of evidence-based care to all who need it, and we need to improve the knowledge base on how illicit drugs relate to other urgent challenges, such as conflicts and environmental degradation.
• It is needed that the policy makers across the world to tailor holistic drug-supply reduction strategies encompassing economic development and alternative livelihoods in countries where coca bush is illicitly cultivated.
• Drug policy approaches should be integrated into conflict and peacebuilding responses in conflict areas.
• Governments should encourage more complex and deep investigation of transnational crimes, aimed at revealing and dismantling related financial flows.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT