The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), on Thursday said illegal drugs trade was providing work for people hit by the coronavirus crisis, while demand for drugs was expected to rise amid economic downturn.

In Afghanistan, the world’s main opium-producing country, the opium harvest that started in March was initially hampered as workers could not travel to Afghanistan from Pakistan due to border closure.

In Bolivia, the pandemic has hampered the government’s ability to fight coca cultivation.

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The UNODC warned that the looming economic crisis might lead more farmers to increase or take up coca cultivation in all the major cocaine-producing countries of Latin America.

It warned that transport restrictions had severely hampered global drug trafficking, creating growing stockpiles that could eventually lead to a dangerous flooding of consumer markets.

The lifting of restrictions could result in an increase in the availability of low-cost, high-purity drugs and could lead to an increase in the risk of drug overdoses.

However, based on the experiences of the 2008 global economic crisis, the UNODC assumes that the current downturn could trigger an increase in drug use and a shift toward cheaper substances.

In Europe, there are signs that lockdown measures increased the demand for cannabis.

Vanguard