Potential cocaine production in Colombia reached more than 2,600 metric tons last year, according to the latest survey from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). This represents a potential 53 per cent increase in production over 2022 and marks the tenth consecutive annual increase, the agency states.
The estimate is based on a 10 per cent increase in coca bush cultivation in the country between 2022 and 2023, to more than 250,000 hectares. While previous increases have been heavily concentrated in a single region – the Putomayo administrative region, or ‘department’ – last year saw increases in cultivation in 16 of the country’s 19 coca-producing departments.
The increases in cultivation are coinciding with an ‘increase in violence against social leaders, a deterioration of security conditions and additional pressure against indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups’, the agency states. While most coca ‘remains far from market centres in territories with high vulnerabilities and limited accessibility’ the latest survey found that the number of hectares planted with coca within 12 km of a population centre has increased from 37,000 a decade ago to almost 210,000. This closer proximity could cause ‘legal economies to become increasingly dependent on resources generated by illegal activities’, it says. ‘Armed groups in Colombia remain heavily involved in the cocaine market, intensifying violent conflicts in areas affected by drug trafficking, illegal mining and human trafficking.’
A separate UNODC report from last year found that worldwide production of cocaine had ‘jumped dramatically’ following its COVID-related slowdown, driven not just by the expansion of coca bush cultivation but also improvements in the process of converting coca into cocaine hydrochloride. Cocaine availability in Europe also quickly surpassed pre-pandemic levels, according to EMCDDA, with vast quantities of the drug entering via ports such as Antwerp and Rotterdam and record levels of seizures.
Latin American and European crime networks are also collaborating to produce more cocaine in large-scale laboratories in Europe itself, EMCDDA reports, and the last few years have seen ‘unprecedented levels’ of drug-related violence, including kidnappings, killings and torture.
According to OHID figures, the number of people in England entering treatment for powder cocaine increased by 10 per cent in 2022-23 to more than 23,500, alongside a rise in people entering treatment for crack. In Ireland, cocaine overtook heroin three years ago as the main problem drug for people seeking treatment for the first time, according to the country’s Health Research Board.
UNODC: Cultivos de coca 2023 available here