Drug Trafficking

Drugs and the Source Countries

The bulk of international drug trafficking concerns three plant-based drugs, which are among the most commonly consumed illicit psychoactive substances worldwide. The pole position is undoubtedly held by cannabis: Either in the form of cannabis herb (marijuana) or cannabis resin (hashish), it is used in almost all countries across the globe and is almost everywhere the most popular illicit drug. Out of the estimated 14.8 million Americans who used an illicit drug in 1999, 75 percent used only marijuana, and 18 percent used marijuana and another illicit drug (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA 2000). Marijuana consumers are estimated to represent 6.2 percent of the U.S. population twelve years old and older. In the late 1990s, around 15 million Europeans (about 6 percent of those aged fifteen to sixty-four) had used cannabis in the previous twelve months (EMCDDA 2000: 7). Worldwide there are 144 million consumers of cannabis products (UNODCCP 2001: 69–72).

In much of the developed world, the second most popular plant-based drug is cocaine, an alkaloid obtained from the leaves of the coca bush. Cocaine is a white powder with stimulant effects. According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse in 1999, an estimated 1.5 million U.S. residents were cocaine users. This represented 0.7 percent of the population aged twelve and older (SAMHSA 2000). In the countries belonging to the European Union (EU), cocaine has [Page 570]been tried at least once by 1 to 6 percent of all those aged sixteen to thirty-four (EMCDDA 2000: 7). Worldwide there are about 14 million users of cocaine (UNODCCP 2001: 74).

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