Drug Trade: Source, Destination, and Transit Countries

The global illicit drug trade is transnational by nature. It generates more than $400 billion a year, which represents almost 1 percent of the world's economy. The importance of this global illicit drug market is of concern, so much so that member countries of the United Nations (UN) have called for a global eradication of production by year 2019. Despite successful efforts in recent years by governments to reduce production, and thus availability of drugs, analyses of long-term trends show that global potential production of drugs is increasing. For instance, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that opium production has increased worldwide by about 80 percent between 2000 and 2010 and that global cocaine production increased by about 5 percent. The marijuana ...