[imagesource:rawpixel]

Fancy a bump? According to the UN’s latest drug report more than 22 million people do, and production of the Bolivian marching powder is at an all-time high.

The recently-published World Drug Report 2023 found that there were 22 million people who used cocaine in 2021, up from 21 million the previous year.

Following the laws of supply and demand, coca bush cultivation jumped from 234 200 hectares in 2020 to 315 000ha in 2021. Business seems to be boom-booming – if you’re a drug dealer.

Cocaine seizures have however outpaced production, with 2 026 tons seized in 2021. This is still lower than in the mid-2000s, but production of the drug has steadily increased since 2015. The Americas and Western and Central Europe still dominate the charlie market, but the drug’s usage is growing fast in Africa, Asia, and Southeastern Europe.

“The world is currently experiencing a prolonged surge in both supply and demand of cocaine, which is now being felt across the globe and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond the traditional confines.”

Yup, peeps like their blow, and the producers have responded. Trafficking of cocaine has become a bigger business than ever, and the guys running the show seem to have taken notes from their peers in legit businesses by diversifying in line with the dynamics of competition, specialisation and collaboration, ultimately leading to more efficient supply chains.

It would seem that the cocaine trade is run like Walmart. And they are getting very creative.

Traffickers are increasingly smuggling cocaine by dissolving it into plastic and charcoal objects because it’s much harder to detect. They’re also setting up more “super labs” in Europe where they extract the cocaine base out of those materials and turn it into powder.

Scanners, X-rays, and K-9s usually can’t detect coke that’s been smuggled in this manner. Chemists use certain chemicals to “lock” the cocaine base into the carrier products, making it almost impossible to retrieve the drug without knowing which chemical to use. Moerse clever.

Cocaine seems to not just be a bump in the road for law enforcement agencies, and its nasty little brother, meth, is also jumping on the bandwagon with increased usage worldwide.

Check out the below video about the rising trend:

Cocaine might be ‘fun’ for its users, but it leaves a trail of death and destruction on its road to your mirror.

[source:vice]