Supply enhancement describes the reality of global illicit drug cultivation and production growing steadily at 5-10% per annum for the last decade. Between 1971 and 1999, global opium production grew fivefold to reach 6100 tonnes [8-10], while coca cultivation doubled between 1984 and 1999 to reach 600 000 tonnes [10]. Enthusiastic reports of declining production usually reflect temporary and local reverses, explained most often by poor weather in critical growing areas. The orderly division of the planet into developing countries which produce illicit drugs and developed countries which consume these drugs ceased to exist long ago. As demand for illicit drugs in the developed world has become more saturated and the risks of exporting to these markets has also increased, more and more illicit drugs have found their way to expanding markets in the growing regions.

Labels: recreational drug use