The team has revealed a brain mechanism specific to cocaine which triggers a massive increase in serotonin (the ‘happy’ hormone) in addition to the increase in dopamine (the neurotransmitter that causes addiction) common to all drugs. Serotonin acts as an intrinsic brake on the overexcitement of the reward system prompted by dopamine. The results are published in the latest edition of the prestigious journal Science. Contrary to popular thinking, cocaine only triggers an addiction in 20% of consumers, a statement issued by the university said. “The same principle applies to all potentially addictive products,” said Christian Lüscher, a professor in the Department of Basic Neurosciences at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, who led the research.

Cannabis remains by far the most widespread drug enjoyed in Switzerland, even if the value of the market is much lower than that for cocaine. A study published by several groups including Addiction Switzerland estimates the national cannabis market to be worth up to CHF500 million ($516 million). But in canton Vaud, where the study was carried out, the figures show that the total market value was around half that of for cocaine – a finding that Frank Zobel, co-director of Addiction Switzerland, said was a surprise. “We thought that cannabis represented the biggest market in all senses of the word,” he said. “However, the turnover is lower than for cocaine, even if it does remain significantly higher than for other drugs.” (See also: Le marché du cannabis pèse 340 à 500 millions de francs en Suisse)

Switzerland's capital is examining a pilot project to allow the sale of cocaine for recreational use - a radical approach to the war on drugs that is not thought to have been tried elsewhere. The municipal council in Bern has supported the idea, which still needs to overcome opposition from the city government and will also require a change in national law. "The war on drugs has failed, and we have to look at new ideas," said Eva Chen, a member of the Bern council from the Alternative Left Party who co-sponsored the proposal. "Control and legalisation can do better than mere repression." (See also: Swiss capital exploring legal cocaine sales)

Switzerland's capital city, Bern, has signalled its intent to conduct a scientific pilot trial of controlled cocaine sales. With 43 votes to 18, the city parliament approved a motion from the Alternative Left to extend trials with cannabis to the future legal sale of cocaine. Despite recognising that cocaine is a harmful drug, Bern politicians believe that supervised sales could lead to better control of the narcotic, reported SRF. Bern's vote is intended to send a signal to the government and to other cities to consider the idea. This cocaine sale proposal was narrowly rejected by the Bern parliament in 2019, but a second version featuring more restrictions gathered enough additional support from the leftwing Social Democratic Party to force the motion through

Swiss drug policy is shifting. Some pharmacies and social clubs in major cities are making cannabis available for recreational purposes under scientific pilot projects. There is even talk of extending such trials to cocaine. The scientific pilot SCRIPT will make cannabis available for sale in pharmacies in the Swiss capital Bern, along with the cities of Lucerne and Biel. The goal is to evaluate what impact a regulated, not-for-profit sale of cannabis coupled with advisory services may have on cannabis consumption. It is one of several pilot trials planned across Switzerland. In June, Bern’s city parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion from the Alternative Left party calling on the city to conduct a scientific pilot trial of controlled cocaine sales.  

Delays in introducing reform is fuelling drug consumption and crime in NSW, experts have warned, calling for the government to implement decriminalisation for small quantities of illicit substances. Australia is now the highest per capita user of cocaine worldwide, consuming an estimated 5.6 tonnes a year, with Sydney leading the country in use. Australia is also one of the most expensive places to buy cocaine, costing anywhere from $250 to $400 a gram. The only places where it costs more are in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where supplying drugs attracts the death penalty. Sydney’s love affair with the costly powder has led to carnage, with eight cocaine-related shootings since March alone.

As the volume of cocaine trafficked into the Netherlands through the port city of Rotterdam increases, so too does the number of young men employed by criminal gangs to retrieve the drugs from among freight arriving from Latin America. These so-called "cocaine collectors" make around 2,000 euro (£1,680) for every kilo of cocaine they carry out. And this is a business that has exploded. "We first noticed them about two years ago," says Andre Kramer, who owns a container processing company in the port. "There was one or maybe two of them, and it happened once or twice a year. But in the past six months the groups of collectors have got bigger - 10 or 12 people gathered together, and it happens three or four times a week."

As a farmer eking out a living in Peru’s central jungle, Rubén Leiva grew one cash crop that seemed immune from global cycles of booms and busts. But the coronavirus pandemic has accomplished what neither other international crises nor a U.S.-backed “war” ever could: a collapse in the price of coca leaf, a natural stimulant that is the building block of cocaine. The great coca crash of 2020 — prices for the leaf in some regions of South America have fallen as much as 73 percent — illustrates the extent to which the pandemic is disrupting every aspect of global trade, including the traffic in illegal drugs. Lockdowns have sealed regional borders and sharply curbed domestic and international transit, challenging the ability of cartels to move product by land, air or sea.

The epidemic of drug overdoses, often perceived as a largely white rural problem, made striking inroads among black Americans last year — particularly in urban counties where fentanyl has become widespread. Although the steep rise in 2016 drug deaths has been noted previously, these are the first numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to break down 2016 mortality along geographic and racial lines. They reveal that the drug death rate is rising most steeply among blacks. Fentanyl-laced cocaine, too, may be playing a role. A study found that cocaine-related overdose deaths were nearly as common among black men between 2012-2015 as deaths due to prescription opioids in white men over the same period.

A Vancouver man is planning to open what would be Canada’s first store that sells heroin, cocaine, meth, MDMA, and other drugs as a way to reduce the rising number of deaths stemming from the overdose crisis. Jerry Martin, 51, wants to open the brick-and-mortar shop by the end of January, when British Columbia’s new drug decriminalization policy kicks in. The pilot project, which will last three years, will mean it’s no longer illegal to possess up to 2.5 grams of opioids, crack and powder cocaine, meth, and MDMA. Selling those drugs will remain illegal. But Martin, a former cocaine user, believes providing drugs that have been tested for contaminants will save the lives of drug users. 

"La hidrovía del Paraná -con puertos en Brasil y Bolivia que siguen el río, pasan por Paraguay y llegan a Argentina- es una ruta de creciente importancia de la cocaína con destino a Europa, que preocupa en este momento”, cuenta Javier Sagredo, director de COPOLAD III (Programa de Cooperación entre América Latina, el Caribe y la UE en políticas de drogas). "Pero obsesionarse con las rutas es como querer parar un río que baja de la montaña al valle: puedes poner una presa, pero el agua va a desbordar y va a ir por otro lado”, afirma. "Se ha comprobado en este período de pandemia: el tráfico que se hacía con "mulas” paró, pero se incrementó por otras vías.  Tiempo antes, cuando Estados Unidos bloqueó las rutas del Caribe, comenzaron a abrirse rutas hacia el oeste del África y de ahí a Europa”.

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, which simulated the complex dynamics between drug traffickers and US drug control efforts in Central America, suggests the efforts of successive US governments have led to a “cat-and-mouse arms race”, in which traffickers have massively expanded their networks of operations in ever greater efforts to out-manoeuvre authorities. The model demonstrated that narco-trafficking is as widespread and difficult to eradicate as it is because of interdiction, and increased interdiction will continue to spread traffickers into new areas, allowing them to continue to move drugs north.

The world’s cocaine industry — which produces close to 2,000 metric tons a year and makes tens of billions of dollars — has adapted better than many other legitimate businesses. The industry has benefited from huge stores of drugs warehoused before the pandemic and its wide variety of smuggling methods. Street prices around Europe have risen by up to 30 percent, but it is not clear how much of this is due to distribution problems, and how much to drug gangs taking advantage of homebound customers. What is clear is that cocaine continues to flow from South America to Europe and North America. Closed trafficking routes have been replaced with new ones, and street deals have been substituted with door-to-door deliveries.

Colombia’s war on drugs dominated the headlines of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s October visit to Bogotá. Michael Crowley, a diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, wrote of policy splits between the Biden administration and Colombia’s new president, Gustavo Petro, regarding their divergent views on the war on drugs. Although they do diverge, both stances on the drug war have more similarities than differences—and they are both wrong, as they are oblivious to the drug trade’s market dynamics. The White House has reinforced the traditional strategy of trying to make the price of cocaine so expensive that U.S. consumers won’t want to buy it. Petro has correctly condemned the drug war for its failures, but his critique has amounted to mere posturing, with no plan to recognize the inescapable facts of market forces.

The Drug User Liberation Front, a Vancouver-based activist group, made a serious statement on June 23. During a protest in the city’s Downtown Eastside, they gave out free, checked and illegal drugs to their community. They did this in response to British Columbia’s monthly overdose death numbers reaching a then–record high of 170 in May. Over 200 people are estimated to have received small quantities of drugs, including opium and cocaine, at the event. Given the dangerous adulteration of the drug supply, exacerbated by the pandemic, there’s a good chance that one or two lives were saved that day. (See also: A domestic safe supply of injectable heroin would save lives)