By Jhon Sebastian Cote, EL ESPECTADOR, June 26, 2025
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The UN Office To Oppose Drugs and Crime has issued its worldwide report on narcotics. It reflects the consequences of an era of “global instability” marked by the empowering of cross-border criminal groups, and the catapulting of drug consumption to historically high levels. Colombia has 67% of all the hectares planted in coca on the whole planet, and is hoping for a certification to combat data like that.
There are at least 316 million people in the whole world who consume drugs. Colombia shares broad responsibility for that statistic, as it has retained for decades the post of largest producer of cocaine in the world, and is one of the epicenters of a system of drug purchase and sale that has proliferated as never before. That’s pointed out in a new report by the UN Office To Oppose Drugs and Crime (UNODC). This is an annual analysis that covers statistics, social phenomena, and historical background, so as to, in summary, describe how the illegal drug business is moving all over the world and what are the shared responsibilities.
The report puts special emphasis on the vulnerabilities placed on populations that remain in conflict all over the world, and on the changes in the markets in the countries with abrupt sociopolitical changes, like in the cases of Ukraine and Syria. In a more detailed view, Colombia, in the framework of Latin America, continues to be the origin of a predicament of which Europe and the United States are now not the only large-scale victims.
“This edition of the Worldwide Report on Drugs shows that the criminal groups dedicated to drug trafficking continue to adapt, exploiting the crises, and focusing on the populations in the worst situations of vulnerability,” explained Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC, responding to the communications media.
Colombia
One of the bluntest phrases in the report is that drug consumption has catapulted to “historically high levels”. The most current statistics respecting hectares planted in coca are from the latter part of 2023, and there the UNODC discovered that plantings for illegal use increased by 6% from 2022, and reached 376,748 hectares in the whole world. It’s as if there were 526,000 football fields planted in coca, the whole area of a country like Cabo Verde. This phenomenon is not absent in Colombia, because in UNODC’s latest measurement, also at the end of 2023, there were 253,000 hectares planted in coca. That means that Colombia has planted 67% of all the hectares planted in coca on the planet.
With that kind of basic participation in the illegal market for coca, it’s easy to conclude that Colombia also shares broad responsibility for the levels of production. According to the report, from 2022 to 2023, cocaine production increased by 34%, reaching 3,708 tons worldwide.
“The market for cocaine, the drug that’s increasing the fastest of all the illegal drugs, is the field of ferocious competition among the traffickers, which is generating alarming levels of violence. Although violence has been a problem in Latin America and the Caribbean for a long time, now it’s extending to countries in Western Europe” explains the report.
The UNODC explains that the violence associated with cocaine is increasing because of the influence of organized criminal groups from the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), who are a big part of the trafficking pie from South America to Europe.
In a dialog with EL ESPECTADOR, Leonardo Correa, Regional Director for Analysis at UNODC for this region, explains that in recent years there has been evidence that these groups, in addition to the Mexican and Italian organizations that already exist, even come to this country to buy the cocaine directly. A problem that, as principal producers, Colombia shares with Peru and Bolivia.
Correa adds that recent years mark a diversification in the market that until recently ended up, almost exclusively, in Europe and the United States. “One part of the drugs that are born in Colombia goes to Ecuador and is moved toward the South, seeking a port of departure for Europe, Asia, Africa, or Oceania. Much of the drug is now going through Brazil to take the Paraná-Paraguay waterway and go down to the ports of Sao Paulo in Brazil or cities near the Río de la Plata in Argentina and Uruguay. The Colombian groups don’t have the monopoly or the capacity to take the drugs to these new destinations themselves, but they do have contacts with those who have a market in other continents,” he explained.
The report establishes that on this planet, 25 million people consumed cocaine during 2023. This represents 0.47% of the world’s population aged 15-64. Even though seizures of cocaine were tripled in the recent decade, which is a prioritized strategy of the Gustavo Petro administration, the fact is that the rise is also owed to the increase in cocaine available for use. The north, west, and center of Africa are turning into an important point for transfer of the cocaine that’s headed for Europe, while south Asia has been identified, at last report, as a final destination for drug consumption and trafficking.
The UNODC, on the other hand, has been making estimates of the illegal financial flows related to drugs. For example, the amount of drugs leaving Colombia represented between 0.4% and 2.8% of its Gross National Product. Compared to that, Mexico represents about 1%. The Office concludes that, in addition, Colombia receives an average of 2.6 trillion dollars annually from cocaine trafficking. The only country exceeding that figure is Mexico, which reports as much as 4.5 trillion.
The Anti-Drug Certification
Time is running out for Colombia to face one of the most important events in the framework of the war on drugs: the certification by the United States government. In September, after reaching a conclusion at the administration and legislative levels, that country will decide whether Colombia will maintain its status. That decision would result in the provision of funds to prevent and combat drug trafficking. When former Minister of Justice Ángela María Buitrago held office, she had two meeting with high officials, and she told EL ESPECTADOR that the certification is not just good for Colombia alone, because a weakening of those measures, in reality, would strengthen the transnational organizations that market the drugs throughout the world.
Colombia’s context shows that, not only are the armed groups oriented toward territorial control, but they are also integrated into the social system, to the point where they are supplanting the services and the dominion of the government. And to go after the so-called “cabecilla” (ringleader), as the authorities call them, has no positive effect. “In fact, that kind of strategy can generate undesired results (. . .) The death or capture of the leader of a group can increase the violence and provoke fragmentation and competition which at the same time can multiply the groups and make the drugs cheaper, which will increase their sale,” explains the report.
Because of that, for UNODC, international cooperation to combat drug trafficking is almost an obligation in a regional panorama where the capabilities of individual governments are limited. “The weak coastal governance and the corruption in the ports offer opportunities for the drug trafficking groups to move huge quantities of drugs using maritime routes. Supporting the coastal governments in the application of maritime law, improving cooperation, and constructing solid legal frameworks is fundamental. The interdictions at sea and the control of the ports are key tools to interrupt the supply chains before they are adapted and the routes displaced,” explains the report.
The certification of Colombia is key to the extent that the funds are used to reach the level of technological sophistication used in the drug supply chains, as was confirmed by former Minister Buitrago. That includes the acquisition of new intelligence-gathering skills, teams adequate for maintaining scientific and forensic capacity sufficient to identify new drugs and emerging threats related to supply and demand. The report is clear in that artificial intelligence, unarmed drones, data and other technologies can be used for oversight work and identification of chemical compounds, respecting, obviously, the human rights framework.
The World
The UNDOC reported that, once again, marijuana is the most requested drug, with an estimated 244 million consumers in the world. That corresponds to nearly two-thirds of the population of the United States. Next come the opioids with 61 million; amphetamines with 31 million; cocaine with 25 million; and ecstasy with 21 million. The Office found that at least 64 million consumers have health conditions associated with the consumption of psychoactive substances, an increase of 13% in the last ten years. In spite of the size of the figure, only 8.1% of the total population of consumers are receiving medical treatment. One of every seven men and only one of every eighteen women.
“The traffickers are also taking advantage of a wave of record production, expanding into new markets in Asia and Africa. All along the Balkans route –which originates in Afghanistan and crosses through the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, and southeast Europe to reach western and central Europe—the estimated annual gross receipts from the traffic in opiates was 15.500 million dollars between 2019 and 2022. The value in the retail market of the opiates trafficked all along the route that comes from Afghanistan, passing through Central Asia and the Russian Federation was estimated at around 10,000 million dollars annually between 2016 and 2019,” the Office explains.
At the same time, they report that the socio-political conflicts and regional instability continue to offer fertile territory for the production and traffic in synthetic drugs. “The war in Ukraine has altered established routes for the trafficking of heroin and cocaine, but the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs has been expanded. Ukraine has turned into an important source of illegally manufactured methadone,” concludes the study. UNDOC closes the report by arguing that the world is now in a context of changes of direction in geopolitics that are shaking up financial markets and diplomatic relations, and certain conflict scenarios have been intensified. These dynamics are creating new groups of vulnerable people who are at greater risk of turning to the illicit drug markets, as consumers or as traffickers.