La colaboración entre grupos criminales dedicados al tráfico de cannabis está creando “nuevos riesgos de seguridad” en Europa, donde el mercado de esta droga tiene un valor de al menos 11.400 millones de euros al año y mueve productos “cada vez más potentes y diversos”. Un análisis publicado por Europol y el Observatorio Europeo de Drogas y Toxicomanías (OEDT) señala que el del cannabis es el mayor mercado de drogas en Europa, y se estima que unos 22,6 millones de adultos europeos de entre 15 y 64 años han consumido esta sustancia en el último año. Las cantidades incautadas en la Unión Europea (UE) alcanzaron en 2021 sus niveles más altos en una década.

Canada’s black market of pot is still riding rampant over licensed retailers, a year into what many say continues to be a slow rollout of brick-and-mortar stores in Ontario and regulatory challenges. Retail stores in Ontario sold approximately $200 million in recreational pot last year, accounting for the lion’s share of just under $300 million in estimated Ontario Cannabis Store recreational sales, said Cheri Mara, chief commercial officer for the OCS. That’s far below the estimated $2.9-billion provincial market value. “I wouldn’t be honest with you if I said we were happy with that number … when our mandate is to eradicate the illicit market,” she said.

El combate al narcotráfico y específicamente al llamado "prensado paraguayo" fue uno de los objetivos que la administración de José Mujica se propuso al momento de incentivar la legalización de la producción, distribución y venta de cannabis. Sin embargo, el narcotráfico de marihuana aún es una realidad en Uruguay y las autoridades entienden que eso se debe a una oferta estatal "insuficiente". El director del Instituto de Regulación y Control del Cannabis (IRCCA), Martín Rodríguez, dijo que el ingreso de marihuana de origen paraguaya se debe a la existencia de una "mayor demanda" de marihuana frente una oferta "insuficiente" del Estado.

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.

“Alguien tiene que ser el primero”, decía en 2012 el expresidente uruguayo, José Mujica, cuando lo consultaban sobre la posibilidad de legalizar el mercado de cannabis en Uruguay y experimentar así una alternativa al prohibicionismo imperante. Tiempo después, en diciembre de 2013, el Congreso de su país aprobaba una ley que por primera vez en el mundo regulaba integralmente el mercado de cannabis para uso adulto o recreativo. Pasada una década se estima que el 51% de los uruguayos que fuma esta hierba lo hace dentro del circuito legal: la marihuana se vende en farmacias habilitadas, es posible cultivarla en casa u obtenerla en clubes cannábicos.

Poppy cultivation in Mexico and Colombia is part of a local economy geared almost exclusively toward the illegal market abroad: it is driven by demand for heroin, primarily in the United States. North America, including Canada, is currently experiencing a major humanitarian crisis related to this use and the opioids circulating on this market. To understand the dynamics of this market and to evaluate whether political responses to the phenomenon are appropriate and effective, we present this report on opium poppy cultivation in Mexico and Colombia, which, together with Guatemala, are the poppy-producing countries of Latin America.

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Cinco años después de la legalización del cannabis, California está llena de indicios del aparente crecimiento de la industria. Los californianos pueden fumar porros de la marca de Justin Bieber y echar la cenizas en ceniceros de 95 dólares hechos por Seth Rogen. Pueden beber refrescos con THC, relajarse con un café de cannabis y pedir comestibles para que les envíen a casa. Pero detrás de esta fachada, la industria del cannabis legal sigue lejos de ser el sector próspero y respetuoso de la ley que muchos esperaban. De hecho, es un lío. La votación para legalizar el consumo recreativo de marihuana sucedió en noviembre de 2016. Pero hoy, la gran mayoría del mercado sigue siendo ilegal – entre el 80% y 90%, según los expertos.

Much has been made about the price difference between the legal and illegal cannabis markets in Canada, but the information surrounding the topic of prices on the illicit and licit markets is misleading. Statistics Canada’s most recent figures from earlier this year show legal cannabis being about twice the supposed cost of illegal or black market cannabis, with legal cannabis on average selling at about $10.30 per gram compared to about $5.73 per gram for illicit cannabis. But while the numbers for legal cannabis provided by Statistics Canada are based on verifiable numbers in legal, regulated stores both online and brick-and-mortar, the pricing for cannabis purchased from the illegal sector is based on anonymous polling data collected by the federal government.

Massachusetts marijuana products consistently fetch around double the price of equivalents in the most mature recreational markets, according to a review of dispensary menus around the country and new data by several analytics firms. And in most cases, cannabis here is even pricier than in other states that legalized the drug more recently; only the nascent and heavily taxed Illinois market approaches the Bay State’s exorbitant prices. An eighth of an ounce of decent-quality marijuana flower retails for $50 to $60 on the Massachusetts recreational market before adding an effective 20 percent combined state and local tax. Compare that with $20 to $30 for an eighth of an ounce of exceptional cannabis in Oregon, the state with the cheapest legal weed.

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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Two years on, the Canadian cannabis legalisation experiment hasn’t quite turned out as we reformers had hoped. The black market is still vibrant while cannabis stocks have crashed, medical patients say they can’t get hold of essential medicines, and thousands of jobs have been lost. So what went wrong – and what went right? Alastair Moore, co-founder of Hanway Associates, a London-based cannabis consultancy, says the Canadian industry has been driven by vulture capitalism and wishful thinking. “A mix of greed and naivety led this industry to great heights – and has left it on its knees. While some made lots of money, others lost their investments and now many others have lost their jobs.”

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)

The low volume, high frequency internet drugs market makes it hard for police to target. And even harder for teenagers to know what they’re taking. After the Future Music Festival in Sydney, 177 people will face court on drugs charges. Yet police sniffer dogs, which have been shown to be little more than a psychological deterrent, are not detecting new and emerging drugs that are widely available in Australia. These "new" drugs are freely available online and over the counter in NSW, despite amendments to the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act to include emerging psychoactive substances (EPS) over a year ago.

In the last few years, while the business and economy in the state kept sliding, the drugs trade flourished. With addicts turning peddlers and several reports of political patronage to the drugs trade, chitta became a veritable business in Punjab. The business of drugs sprawls from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the farms of rural Punjab and drawing rooms of Ludhiana and Chandigarh, involving a vast variety of actors such as the unemployed rural youth, urban rich brats, spoilt college girls, bored housewives and even cops. Punjab's drug problem is not restricted to the typical demographic of unemployed youth. It is rampant across divides such as class, gender, age and geography. No wonder, the Punjab government recently ordered all its employees to undergo drug tests.

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.

Canada needs to open as many as 4,000 cannabis stores, more than triple the current number of licensed outlets, if policymakers want to eliminate the illicit market, according to the head of one of the largest marijuana retailers in the country. Trevor Fencott, chief executive officer of Fire and Flower Holdings Corp., said that Canada would need to mirror what other legal markets such as Colorado have done to compete directly with the illicit market, where one cannabis store would be open for every 10,000 people served. That would result in Canada needing to open about 3,500 to 4,000 cannabis stores. Canada has just shy of 1,000 licensed cannabis stores across the country less than two years after legalizing recreational pot.

In the scientific literature, 'skunk' has come to mean something more specific: cannabis that contains a high percentage of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the intoxicating part) but little to no Cannabidiol (CBD, an antipsychotic), in contrast to other milder ‘strains’ which contain lower levels of THC and more a significant CBD component. Skunk is a deliberate creation of the illicit industry, fashioned by generations of selective breeding and advanced cultivation methods that have steadily pushed THC levels up over the last 20 years.

When it comes to drugs, Austrians are increasingly turning to cannabis and buying from ‘home growers’ based in Austria, according to a public prosecutor. “People are not buying so many hard drugs, but are increasingly buying cannabis. What’s interesting is that fewer drugs are being imported and the cannabis is frequently grown in the country," public prosecutor Barbara Haider told the Kurier newspaper. The decline in imported cannabis may be due to the fact that the technical equipment for growing cannabis plants is easily obtainable in so-called grow or head shops and stricter border controls along the Balkans route to Austria, as a result of the refugee crisis.

"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”.

When legalization proponents sold voters on Prop. 64 in 2016, one of their chief arguments in favor of the measure was that legal weed would yield a cash bonanza for state and local governments throughout California. And indeed, they seem to have been right. But now, many of those very same people argue that those taxes need to be reduced or eliminated altogether. And indeed, they seem to be right about that, too. Nobody could know precisely what would happen, though plenty of people were certain that they did know, or at least sounded like they did. Most people thought the legal market would overtake the illicit market. The market for illicit pot in California is still much larger than the legal market—approaching three times the size, by some estimates.