NCJ Number
213272
Date Published
2006
Length
182 pages
Annotation
This first volume of a two-volume report provides data and analysis on trends in world drug markets, an estimation of the value of illicit drug markets, how HIV/AIDS is spread through drug users, and the creation of an Illicit Drug Index.
Abstract
The chapter on trends in world drug markets first addresses the dynamics of these markets. This pertains to how the drug problem is evolving and the outlook for world drug markets. The chapter then presents data and analysis on the production, trafficking, and abuse of opium/heroin, coca/cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamine-type stimulants. The second chapter estimates the value of illicit drug markets. The value of the global illicit drug market for 2003 is estimated to be $13 billion at the production level, $94 billion at the wholesale level (taking seizures into account), and $322 billion at the retail level (based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account). The third chapter provides data and information on the ways HIV/AIDS is transmitted through drug users. These include the sharing of contaminated injection equipment among those who inject drugs, sexual contact between infected injecting drug users and their sexual partners, high-risk sexual behavior under the influence of such drugs as cocaine and amphetamine-type stimulants, and transmission of the virus from an infected drug-using pregnant woman to her unborn child. Globally, it is estimated that 5-10 percent of all HIV infections are attributable to injecting drug use. Chapter four discusses the creation of an Illicit Drug Index. Such an index would provide a single, standard, and comparable measure of a country's overall drug problem, weighted by the size of its population. Extensive tables and figures