On June 26, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its annual report on the illicit drug trade. The headline is that despite millions of people killed, incarcerated and impoverished, and trillions of dollars spent on the global drug war, people are using more illicit drugs than ever. The UNODC accompanied its research with a booklet focusing on the effects of “environmental crime”—meaning, damage inflicted on ecosystems by organised drug trafficking groups—in the Amazon rainforest. Last year, the agency released its first specific report on “environmental crime,” and we are seeing increasingly high-profile figures speaking out about it. However, experts are warning that this latest UNODC report, along with much of the discourse around these issues, fundamentally misses the point in very dangerous ways.

The cumulative number of authorizations for individual patients in Brazil to import nonregistered medical cannabis products reached 18,650 at the end of March, according to data of the country’s health regulator. National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) approvals to import the products have been growing rapidly in the past year, and although this route is intended to be a special access scheme for exceptional cases, Brazil has become the largest market in Latin America. Nonregistered medical cannabis products, regardless of THC content, can be imported only by individual patients after a doctor and ANVISA have signed off. The health agency does not restrict the products to only CBD, but in practice CBD represents the majority of imports.

After years of increasing numbers of retreat centers and ayahuasca processing facilities opened, reports are starting to surface disclosing the apparent scarcity of harvestable ayahuasca vine in the Iquitos wilderness. A cry of alarm resounded throughout the online psychedelic communities with the publication of an article “We Are Harvesting the Ayahuasca Vine at an Alarming Rate” written by Carlos Suárez Álvarez, which discussed the “excessive” levels of vine harvesting due to increasing global demand. The article claims in foreboding language: “Over-harvesting ayahuasca is putting the sustainability of the medicine, the communities, and several branches of industry in question.”

Hace 25 años que São Paulo, la ciudad más poblada de América, combate sin éxito su mayor foco urbano de consumo de crack. Un megaoperativo policial recuperó este año el territorio dominado por el narcotráfico y dispersó a los usuarios por el centro. El uso de la fuerza para luchar contra la adicción ha reavivado el debate entre las dos posturas principales: el tratamiento obligatorio y la reducción de daños. Desde la megaoperación, la policía ha encarcelado a 166 personas y los usuarios que siguen en la calle no han vuelto a concentrarse en un solo lugar. La dispersión es la estrategia. “El principal problema es tratar una situación de salud pública con fuerzas de seguridad. La policía debe dedicarse a la inteligencia y combate al narcotráfico, no a intervenir con los usuarios”.

El mercado de cocaína fumable se estableció hace décadas, por lo que no se trata de un fenómeno nuevo. En lugar de desaparecer, está experimentando una expansión paulatina, y ha pasado de constituir un hábito bastante localizado y aislado en la región andina en la década de 1970 a tener un alcance que se despliega en todas las direcciones, en toda América del Norte y del Sur, incluidas las regiones del Caribe y América Central. Las sociedades del continente americano han convivido con las cocaínas fumables durante más de cuatro décadas, pero —aunque resulte sorprendente—, existen pocos estudios sobre la evolución del mercado y pocas pruebas de primera mano sobre cómo se comercializa realmente esta sustancia y cómo la utilizan millones de personas en la región.

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El ministro del Interior, Jorge Larrañaga, anunció que su cartera “seguramente” tendrá la “facultad inspectiva” de los clubes cannábicos, para monitorear que no estén volcando sus excedentes al tráfico en Brasil, donde la marihuana cuesta más del doble que en Uruguay. Larrañaga detalló que actualmente en el país hay 159 clubes cannábicos, que pueden tener hasta 45 integrantes cada uno, con una cantidad de gramos habilitada para su consumo anualmente. Hay denuncias de la Policía de Brasil, “donde se ha detectado el ingreso a dicho país de una cantidad importante, de forma periódica, de marihuana producida en Uruguay”.

The Organization of American States' (OAS) latest drug consumption report highlights shifting trends in drug use among youths in the Western Hemisphere. One noteworthy trend is changing cocaine consumption among high school students in South America, when compared to the United States -- the region's largest overall drug consumer. While cocaine use among US high school students has declined since peaking in 1998, consumption in South America has increased, most notably in Argentina and Uruguay, and less so in other nations like Chile and Brazil.

"El pacto social es para acordar una erradicación voluntaria, pacífica y progresiva de los cultivos de coca y el compromiso de no resembrar", señala el nuevo jefe de la política antidrogas del Perú, Ricardo Soberón, presidente ejecutivo de la Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de Vida sin Drogas (Devida). “Este pacto social tiene tres niveles: un acuerdo con los cocaleros y sus organizaciones, un segundo nivel con las municipalidades locales y gobiernos regionales, y un tercero con la población de esos lugares. A cambio les ofrecemos a los agricultores un programa de desarrollo alternativo que llegará oportunamente, asistencia directa a través de la entrega de bienes, insumos, equipos, asistencia técnica, asociatividad, gestión comunal, y también daremos transferencias financieras a los municipios locales."

The coronavirus outbreak has upended industries across the globe. The international narcotics trade has not been spared. From the cartel badlands along the U.S.-Mexico border and verdant coca fields of the Andes, to street dealers in London and Paris, traffickers are grappling with many of the same woes as legitimate businesses. On three continents, Reuters spoke with more than two dozen law enforcement officials, narcotics experts, diplomats and people involved in the illicit trade. They described a business experiencing busted supply chains, delivery delays, disgruntled workers and millions of customers on lockdown. They also gave a window into the innovation - and opportunism - that are hallmarks of the underworld.

Brazil has fast-tracked a draft law that would legalize the cultivation of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp. South America’s largest economy leads the world in several commodities markets, and some politicians say its farmers are keen to expand into hemp. The endeavor to revise Brazil’s cannabis laws began in 2015 with a proposed law that focused on the commercialization of cannabis-based drugs. Last month, Deputy Paulo Teixeira submitted a new version of the bill to the head of the lower chamber. The replacement text expands the so-called legislative project by proposing that the cultivation, processing, research, storage, transportation, production, industrialization, commercialization, import and export of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp be allowed in Brazil.

The number of police killings in Rio de Janeiro reached a record high last year, officials say, amid controversial hardline measures to tackle violence. Police killed 1,810 people, an average of five per day, the highest number since official records began in 1998. Critics blame the rise on policies that include the use of heavily armed agents and helicopter-borne snipers to fight criminals in densely populated areas. But officials say the approach has worked, citing a drop in violent crime. Rio de Janeiro is one of Brazil's most violent states and vast areas are under the control of criminals, many of them linked to powerful drug-trafficking gangs. But paramilitary groups formed by active and retired policemen, known as milícias, have also expanded their influence in recent years.

O secretário da Segurança Pública da Bahia, Ricardo Mandarino, defendeu a descriminalização do uso de drogas como a maconha. Mandarino afirmou ainda que a maconha "torna você um emancipado mental, que é o que a gente precisa ser". Concluiu com uma crítica: "A gente não pode ficar nessas caixinhas". O gestor da Segurança Pública na Bahia também falou sobre as pessoas que conseguem manter um controle no uso social da maconha. Também usou artistas como exemplo para comentar sobre um possível aumento da criatividade após o uso da droga.

The smokable cocaine market was established decades ago, and is definitely not a new phenomenon. Rather than disappear, it is undergoing a slow expansion: from constituting a rather localized and isolated habit in the Andean region in the 1970s, its reach has extended in all directions, throughout North and South-America, including the Caribbean and Central American regions. Societies in the Americas have coexisted with smokable cocaines for over four decades, but - surprisingly - there is a dearth of research on the development of the market, or much first-hand evidence of how this substance is actually commercialized and used by millions of people in the region.

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The experiences of countries that have decriminalised drugs show that fears of explosions in drugs use are unfounded.

O Brasil não está em guerra, certo? Errado. Muito errado. Uma guerra invisível para a maior parte da sociedade, ignorada pela maioria do povo brasileiro, está em curso. Uma guerra que custou, em um único ano, e apenas para os estados do Rio de Janeiro e de São Paulo, R$ 5,2 bilhões. Esse foi o valor drenado do orçamento dos dois estados para matar, processar e encarcerar sobretudo jovens negros e moradores das favelas e periferias envolvidos no varejo de drogas ilícitas. Em qualquer guerra, como sabemos, há sempre os chamados “danos colaterais”; neste caso, são as vítimas das balas perdidas, que nunca erram o alvo. Atingem sempre moradores de favelas e periferias. (Veja mais: Drogas: quanto custa proibir)