US production of marijuana [2] now equals that of Colombia [3], according to the annual report of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The report finds that the US and Colombia each produced some 4,000 metric tons of cannabis last year. Morocco [4] is the world leader at 44,000 metric tons, followed by Paraguay [5] at 16,500 metric tons and Mexico [6] at 15,800. Production in Mexico is down from 25,800 metric tons in 2007, when it occupied second place after Morocco. The Mexican government boasts of eradicating 18,652 hectares of marijuana in 2008. A much higher proportion of the US crop is indoor—an estimated 430,000 plants, compared to 6.6 million outdoor. (El Diario [7], Ciudad Juárez, July 17)
English-language accounts emphasized the more optimistic news from the UNODC report. Global production of coca hit a five-year low at 845 tons despite some increased cultivation in Peru [8] and Bolivia [9]. The estimated cost of the world's illicit drug market is about $320 billion, UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa told AP. "This makes drugs one of the most valuable commodities in the world. The proceeds of drug-related crime are of macro-economic proportions."
Roughly 167 million people use marijuana at least occasionally, the report found. (AP [10], June 24)
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