Drug trafficking has undergone significant changes during the period of the pandemic coronavirus. Writes about this TASS with reference to the report of the UN office on drugs and crime on the topic of trends in the market of illicit drugs in a pandemic.
According to the document, restrictions of flights most notably affected the trade in synthetic drugs, for deliveries between continents, the most frequently used aerial transport. Traffickers began to look for alternative routes for smuggling heroin and began to supply it by sea. While cocaine is often trafficked by sea, as evidenced by the regular detection of large consignments in European ports. The pandemic did not affect trafficking of cannabis, since the drug is produced on-site market, the report noted.
Due to the shortage of drugs, which is predicted by the UN experts, are projected to decrease their use for recreational purposes and the increase in the consumption of harmful substances produced in the domestic market. Thus, some European countries note that heroin users can go on the consumption of fentanyl and its derivatives. In addition, the expected increase in the consumption of drugs by injection, leading to the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and the coronavirus.
In the report experts write about the problems in harvesting of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and cocaine production in Colombia, the fall in cocaine prices in Peru. At the same time, in Bolivia pandemic limited the ability of the authorities to control the cultivation of Coca Bush, which could lead to increased Coca production.
In the long-term economic decline because of the pandemic, are able to transform the drug market, and conclude at the UN.
According to 7 may, worldwide more than 3.7 million infected with the coronavirus, including more than 259 thousand died, more than 1.22 million cured. The most affected from infection of the country — USA, Spain, Italy, UK and France. Russia is on the 7th place in the number of infection with an index of 165 929 people.
