Tracking Synthetic Highs

UN office monitors designer drug trade.

Produced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Global SMART Update  (PDF) for October provides interim reports of emerging trends in synthetic drug use. The report does not concern itself with cocaine, heroin, marijuana, alcohol, or tobacco. “Unlike plant-based drugs,” says the report, “synthetic drugs are quickly evolving with new designer drugs appearing on the market each year.” The update deals primarily with amphetamine-type stimulants, but also includes newer designer drugs such as mephedrone, atypical synthetics like ketamine, synthetic opioids like fentanyl, and old standbys like LSD.

I have summarized some of the findings below:

The first methamphetamine lab in 15 years has been discovered in Japan. Japanese law enforcement seized a suspected residential methamphetamine laboratory outside of Tokyo, the first such seizure since 1995. Two Iranian nationals were arrested. Given the continuously high price of imported crystalline methamphetamine in Japan, there is an increased likelihood that more domestic manufacturers could emerge.

Record ketamine seizures and use has been reported by Taiwan province of China. The FDA reports that ketamine seizures in the first five months of 2010 alone totaled 1465 KG, nearly 300 KG more than last year. Concurrent increases in use were also noted.

The first methamphetamine laboratory in Turkey was discovered. Local media reported the seizure of the lab, in the southern part of the country. The facility reportedly planned to manufacture 100,000 tablets for retail sale at USD 13.40 apiece. In 2009, Turkey reported its first seizures of methamphetamine totaling 103 KG at Istanbul’s airport, which has become a transit point for methamphetamine traffic from Iran to markets in East Asia.

Law enforcement faces unique challenges when dealing with synthetic drug analogs. Customs officers at Prague’s Ruzyne airport reported arresting a Polish national for transporting a substance initially testing positive for ephedrone, a controlled synthetic stimulant. Confirmatory tests, however, revealed the substance to be mephedrone, an analogue not under international control. The event illustrates the challenges law enforcement face when encountering new synthetic substances not under national or international control.

Amphetamine breathalyzer tests may soon be possible, say Swedish researchers. The June issue of the Journal of Analytical Toxicology report reported that the first breath test for methamphetamine and amphetamine detection was successfully conducted in Sweden. Drugs in the exhaled breath are captured in a filter and analyzed using a combination of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Experimental trials on amphetamine-dependent patients admitted to hospital urgency rooms for overdose provided the same results as traditional drug tests.

The U.S. is expanding controls on precursor chemicals for fentanyl and LSD. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has designated a compound called ANPP as a precursor chemical for fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic analgesic. Earlier this year, the DEA proposed new controls over ergocristine, a chemical precursor sometimes used in the manufacture of LSD. Clandestine laboratories in the United States employ it as a substitute for ergotamine and ergometrine, both of which are already under international control.

The U.S. indicts 15 people in one of the largest MDMA busts ever. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury indicted 15 men linked to one of the country's largest ecstasy manufacturing and trafficking rings. Two storage facilities were also seized during the investigation, yielding about 710,000 MDMA tablets. Law enforcement authorities seized more than 1.1 million tablets in all. Authorities believe that the group had been responsible for the distribution of hundreds of thousands of MDMA tablets each month.

Belize stops large shipments of methamphetamine precursors bound for Mexico. Customs authorities in Belize reportedly stopped two large shipments of phenylacetic acid (PAA), or roughly 46 metric tons. Phenylacetic acid can be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Reports suggest the chemical came from China and was ultimately destined for Mexico.

Graphics Credit: http://www.unodc.org/

U.N. Drug Chief predicts 3rd World “Health Disaster.”

The neo-colonialism of drug dependence.

For the developed world, drug abuse is a plague, a law enforcement problem, a budget line item, a therapeutical industry.  But in the developing world, rampant drug use can be a health disaster of immense proportions. Heroin use is skyrocketing in East Africa, while cocaine abuse is increasing in West Africa. The underground synthetic drug market is booming in the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia.

“The developing world lacks the treatment facilities and law enforcement to control drugs,” according to a recent address to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs by Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “Why condemn the Third World, already ravaged by so many tragedies, to the neo-colonialism of drug dependence?”

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is the UN’s primary policymaking body for drug-related issues. Costa told the commission, which is meeting in Vienna this week, that inequality within and between states marginalizes poor people who lack access to treatment. Reminding the commission that “the medical use of narcotic drugs continues to be indispensible for the relief of pain and suffering,” the UNODC director said: “We must not only stop the harm caused by drugs: let’s unleash the capacity of drugs to do good.” He called on member nations to overcome the socioeconomic factors “that deny a Nigerian suffering from AIDS or a Mexican cancer patient the morphine offered to Italian or American counterparts.”

Costa’s UNODC also works with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to pursue universal access to drug treatment and the reduction of disease transmission due to injectable drugs.

Costa said that drug penalties and addiction treatment in some countries amount to little more than cruel and unusual punishment. Noting the millions of people, including children, who are sent to jail for drug use, Costa said: “People who use drugs, or are behind bars, have not lost their humanity or their human rights.” The director cited the Balkans, Central and West Asia, and East and West Africa as regions requiring increased assistance in matters of security and justice related to drug use.

Costa said that the UN sees drug trafficking as a growing security threat, and noted that “few issues have received as much attention as drug trafficking in the Security Council over the past few months.”

Photo Credit: http://www.unodc.org/

Drug Trade Props Up World Economy

U.N. says drug money kept banks in business.

When we think of the international drug trade, we usually think of financial support being funneled to Columbian insurgents or Taliban fighters. Propping up the world banking system is not what usually comes to mind. However, the illicit drug trade may in fact be one of the world’s few growth industries at the moment, with little unemployment, maximum profits, and a plethora of cash-hungry banks ready to lend a hand.

The head of the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime said that profits from the illicit drug trade were being used “to keep banks afloat in the global financial crisis,” Reuters reported last week. In an interview with Profil, an Austrian news magazine, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa warned that “in many instances, drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital.” Costa’s Office on Drugs and Crime uncovered evidence that “interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities,” Costa said. “There were signs that some banks were rescued that way.”

Specifically, Costas said interbank credits have been financed by drug money. “It is naturally hard to prove this, but there are indications that a number of banks were rescued by this means.” While most banks have money laundering rules in place, “now criminals stash their funds in cash sums which can be up to hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Viewed from a macroeconomic perspective, drug money represents scarce investment capital for banks. “In many instances,” Costa said, “drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital to buy real estate, for example.”

Costa would not name any countries or banks which may have been involved. He did note that the current global financial crisis was a “golden opportunity” for crime groups needing to launder money, and that the laundering of illegal funds was “certainly happening across the board,” Veronika Oleksyn of AP reported. Costa said the information came from contacts with prosecutors and banking representatives in various countries.

Costa also told the BBC that South American drug trafficking threatens to economically destabilize Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa. He estimated that the worldwide illegal drug economy was now worth about $323 billion per year. “If you look at agriculture markets, it is the most important,” according to the Drug War Chronicle account of the Profil article. “According to our calculations, the wholesale value of illegal drugs is more than $90 billion, in the range of world meat and grain trade. The street trade we access at a volume of over $320 million.”


Photo Credit: typicallyspanish.com