Reuters AlertNet Lite - Asia, Gulf driving new meth demand, UN says

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Asia, Gulf driving new meth demand, UN says

09 Sep 2008 07:00:04 GMT
Source: Reuters

VIENNA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Fast-growing economies in Asia and the Middle East are fuelling global demand for synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine, as their populations work long hours and grow affluent, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said while the use of drugs like meth, amphetamine and ecstasy has stabilised in developed countries, people in fast-growing economies are getting a taste for the brain-damaging drugs.

They are being used as "a cheap and available tonic for our fast and competitive times, for entertainment in discos (mostly in the West), and for greater stamina in assembly lines and behind a steering wheel in the East," UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said, presenting the report.

The drugs were notorious in the United States during the 1990s but health crackdowns have helped to stem usage, the report said.

Dealers have moved to new territory, targeting countries where it is harder for authorities to clamp down on the market.

UNODC said the annual global market for these drugs is worth an estimated $65 billion and that usage exceeds that of cocaine and heroin combined. The mark-up between wholesale and retail prices can be as high as 400 percent.

In 2006, nearly half of Asian countries reported a rise in meth use, while Saudi Arabia seized 12 tonnes of amphetamine, a quarter of all synthetic drugs seized in the world that year.

"Synthetic drugs are falsely perceived as being harmless," Costa said, adding that they can cause mental health problems, kidney failure and internal bleeding as well as brain damage.

"Meth can be cooked up in the kitchen and pills can be pressed in a garage. Suppliers quickly adapt to the latest trends, and cater to local markets," UNODC said. (Reporting by Sylvia Westall; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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