GLOBAL DRUG USE SHIFTING TO NEW MARKETS, NEW TRAFFICKING ROUTES: UN
REPORT

OTTAWA-The leaders of the world's eight industrialized economies are
expected to address an emerging security threat as the global
narco-trafficking business shifts toward new drugs and markets via a
new hotspot: West Africa.

The United Nations released a report Wednesday showing West Africa is
exploding as a major transshipment point for funnelling cocaine from
central and South America to Europe.

The World Drug Report 2010, released in Washington by the UN Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC), lends urgency to an issue that was discussed
by G8 foreign ministers in March and has been placed on the security
agenda of the summit.

The G8 leaders will sit down Friday afternoon with leaders from
Africa, the Caribbean and Colombia to explore ways to boost the
capacity of West African governments to combat the problem.

In Senegal's capital, Dakar, the construction of many sprawling new
luxury villas is suspected to be linked to money-laundering efforts of
major drug dealers. Other countries targeted by drug traffickers are
Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Togo, Mali, Ghana,
Nigeria and Liberia.

The UN report shows that drug use has "stabilized" in the developed
world, but there are signs of an increase in drug use in developing
countries.

With West Africa becoming a major transit point, there are concerns
that corrupt officials are cashing in on the lucrative drug trade, and
that burgeoning terrorist groups will seek a piece of the action.

Canadian officials, briefing reporters on the Governor General's
recent African trip, said in the last 18 months drug trafficking has
exploded in the region, with much of the drug trade from Venezuela and
Colombia moving into Europe via West Africa.

The UN report says world production of the two main problem drugs -
opiates and cocaine - is declining, and cocaine consumption has fallen
significantly in the United States. The retail value of cocaine in the
U.S. declined by about two thirds in the 1990s and by about one
quarter in the past decade, according to the study.

The report says that to a certain extent, the problem has moved across the
Atlantic: in the last decade the number of cocaine users in Europe doubled,
from 2 million in 1998 to 4.1 million in 2008. By 2008, the European
market - worth about $34 billion (U.S.) - was almost as valuable as the
North American market at $37 billion.

The shift in demand has led to a shift in trafficking routes, causing
regional instability, the UN says.

"People snorting coke in Europe are killing the pristine forests of
the Andean countries and corrupting governments in West Africa," said
UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa in a release accompanying
the report.

"Traffickers have been able to co-opt top figures in some
authoritarian societies", says the report, citing the recent case of
Guinea-Bissau, where corrupt government officials are identified as
aiding the movement of drugs.

It indicates other worrisome trends for G8 leaders, noting that while
drug-related violence in Mexico gets a lot of attention, the northern
triangle of Central America, consisting of Guatemala, Honduras and El
Salvador is even more badly affected, with murder rates much higher
than in Mexico.

Venezuela has emerged as a major departure point for cocaine trafficked to
Europe: between 2006 and 2008, over half of all detected maritime shipments
of cocaine to Europe came from Venezuela.

The UN report called for more development to reduce vulnerability to
crime, and increased law enforcement cooperation to deal with drug
trafficking.

Just three weeks ago, the U.S. announced the arrest of eight suspects
in a major drug trafficking operation that used Liberia as a staging
area for the distribution of $100 million in cocaine. The son of
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a high-level security
official, acted as an undercover agent to aid the investigation.

Other findings of the report include:

. The manufacture of "ecstasy" has increased in North America, notably
in Canada, and in several parts of Asia, and use seems to be
increasing in Asia, while it has plummeted in Europe since 2006.

. Cannabis remains the world's most widely produced and used illicit
substance.

. There is a serious lack of drug treatment facilities around the
world.