precursors

  • North Brabant is Europe's biggest producer of synthetic drugs, such as ecstasy and amphetamine. In 2017, 21 active ecstasy laboratories were dismantled in the EU, up from 11 in 2016 — and all of them were in the Netherlands, according to a report released by the EU drugs agency in June. Local government experts estimate the annual volume of waste from illicit drug production is about 255,000 kg per year. Most of it is dumped in the countryside, resulting in 109 reported findings in 2018, up from 83 in 2017. "It's a very complex issue, but we must seek to regulate this type of drugs on an EU-level in a different way," says Maarten Groothuizen, MP and justice spokesman for the D66 party, hinting at the Dutch gedoogbeleid (“tolerance policy”) that's already in place for the sale of cannabis in coffee shops.

  • Police in Myanmar this week announced the largest synthetic drug seizure on record in Southeast Asia. Between February and April, security forces seized more than 200 million tablets of methamphetamine, 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of crystal meth, 300 kilograms of heroin and 3,750 kilograms of liquid 3-methylfentanyl (3MF). "The amount of 3MF is truly incredible. 3MF is 10 times stronger than fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine. That makes it equivalent to a few thousand tons of morphine — or several billion doses. That has to be for global supply, not just regional," Myanmar expert Richard Horsey told DW.

  • cocaine useOver the past few weeks, we’ve heard stories about how the pandemic has disrupted the global narcotics trade. In Mexico, it’s messing up business for the Sinaloa cartel. No chemicals coming in from China = no ingredients for fentanyl or crystal meth. A tiny microscopic virus did what a billion dollars of DEA funding could not. We’ve also heard stories of how dealers are getting around quarantine, sometimes dressing up as nurses or delivery drivers to give their clients their fix. Like coronavirus, the drugs issue is a public health crisis. Since the pandemic is making us reconsider a lot of things, from our lifestyles to government spending, I’d like to propose we reconsider our drug policy.

  • prohibited plants coverAcross the world, the state of environmental stress is unprecedented. As scholarship and activism on ‘environmental justice’ points out, poorer and marginalised communities face particular exposure to environmental harms. This holds particularly true for populations in the global South. The role of illicit drugs in relation to these environmental stresses is an underexplored terrain. Yet, as this report will argue, drugs, as well as the policy responses to them, are an environmental issue.

    application pdfDownload the report (PDF)

  • coca raspacharAs 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 latest data on ecstasy – taken from pills seized by police in England and Wales between July and October of last year – reveals that the average pinger contains 108mg of MDMA, making them the strongest they've ever been in the UK. For context, "back in the day" – i.e. during the Second Summer of Love, as rave took off here in the late-80s and early-90s – most pills were around the 80mg mark. Which is close to what's seen by ecstasy researchers as the "acceptable" dose (70-75mg) for an average-sized adult during one drug-taking session. (See also: Why are pills so strong at the moment?)

  • ecstasy labWe want to understand why MDMA is today so cheap, so pure, and so abundant across the UK and the EU. Since 2012, pills have doubled or tripled in strength and now have to be taken in halves if you want to remember your night – or to survive it. There were 65 MDMA-related deaths in 2016 – a fivefold increase from the 13 recorded by the Office for National Statistics in 2011. On dark web markets, prices for kilogrammes of MDMA are now £5,000; 10 years ago it was £30–40K. MDMA used to sell at street level for £60/gramme; now it can be bought for £30. The chemical we’ll buy, PMK-glycidate, caused these changes, as it is being used to make MDMA on an unprecedented, industrial scale.