By Dr.Fourkan Ali
Drug abuse kills about 200,000 people worldwide each year,
according to a new United Nations (UN) report. Global treatment for drug abuse
would cost $250 billion per year if everyone who needed help received proper
care, according to the UN.
Fewer than one in five people who need treatment actually
receive it, according to the Associated Press. Crimes committed by people who
need money to finance their drug habit, as well as loss of productivity, add
tremendous costs for many countries, the report notes.
The UN estimates that about 230 million people, or 5 percent
of the world’s population, used illegal drugs at least once in 2010. In the
United States, female drug use was two-thirds the male rate, while in India and
Indonesia, females constituted only one-tenth of those using illegal drugs.
The 2012 World Drug
Report cited an increase in synthetic
drug production worldwide, “including significant increases in the production
and consumptions of psychoactive substances that are not under international
control.” Overall, use of illegal drugs remained stable during the past five
years, at between 3.4 and 6.6 percent of the world’s adult population.
Marijuana was the most widely used drug.
Coca bush cultivation has decreased 33 percent over the past
12 years. Seizures of methamphetamine more than doubled in 2010 compared with
2008. In Europe, seizures of Ecstasy pills more than doubled.
“Heroin, cocaine and other drugs continue to kill around 200,000
people a year, shattering families and bringing misery to thousands of other
people, insecurity and the spread of HIV,” the Executive Director of the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, said in anews release. He added that as developing countries emulate
industrialized nations’ lifestyles, it is likely that drug consumption will
increase.
Source: website
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