LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - The United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) annual report tracks major trends in drug abuse and trafficking around the world.
For a story about the report's findings on poor access to drugs for medicinal purposes, click on [ID:nLDE7202NL]
Here are its other main findings by region.
THE AMERICAS
The Central America and Caribbean region continues to be used as a major transit point for the large-scale trafficking of illicit drugs because of its location at the crossroads of the main producing countries in South America and the consumer markets in North America and Europe.
While the total amount of cocaine smuggled to North America has declined due to reduced demand, the proportion transiting through Central America has increased.
The United States is the main destination for illicit drug shipments. Drug trafficking organisations based in Mexico dominate the market for cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine in the United States.
In 2009, an increase in the abuse of all drugs except cocaine was reported in the United States. From 2007 to 2009, several agencies reported the abuse of prescription drugs as the greatest drug-related threat.
EUROPE
The abuse of cocaine is spreading from Western Europe into other parts of the region. In some countries, cocaine may be replacing amphetamine and ecstasy as a drug of abuse, for example in Denmark, Spain and Britain, where increases in cocaine abuse occurred at the same time as decreases in the abuse of amphetamines.
Western Europe is the world's largest market for heroin, with approximately 60 percent of regional consumption being accounted for by four countries: Britain, Italy, France and Germany.European countries consume almost half of the heroin abused worldwide. Russia has the highest level of opiate abuse (1.6 percent) in Europe. Almost all heroin available in Europe originates from Afghanistan.
Overall in Europe, cannabis use seems to be stable and in some countries even on the decline. Some 1.2 percent of European citizens used cocaine in the previous year, and Spain reports the highest rate with 3.1 percent.
Eastern Europe is one of the few areas in the world where HIV prevalence is on the rise, with severe and spreading epidemics in Russia and Ukraine. At more than 1.6 percent, the rate of HIV infection among adults in Ukraine is the highest in Europe. The use of contaminated equipment for drug injection was the source of over 50 percent of the newly diagnosed HIV cases in Eastern Europe.
AFRICA
Cocaine smuggling through Africa to Europe is on the rise again after a decline in the region in the past two years.
Cannabis is still the drug most widely produced, trafficked and abused in Africa. Annual prevalence rates of abuse on the continent among the population aged 15-64 fluctuate between 5 and 10 percent, representing about double the global average rate. Morocco remains among the world's largest producers of cannabis resin.
East Africa is the main transit route for smuggling heroin from Asia to Africa, mainly through the major airports of Addis Ababa and Nairobi. According to estimates, about 35 tonnes of heroin are smuggled into Africa each year, of which more than half is used to supply Africa's drug addicts (an estimated 1.2 million people) with the remainder being shipped on to other regions, in particular Europe.
ASIA
The manufacture, trafficking and use of synthetic drugs has significantly increased in east and southeast Asia since 2008. Important quantities of methamphetamine were trafficked from the Islamic Republic of Iran and neighbouring countries to the region.
Heroin continues to be the primary drug of abuse in China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam, with most countries in the region reporting declining or stable trends in heroin abuse.
An estimated 25 percent of all injecting drug abusers in the world live in east and southeast Asia.
AUSTRALASIA
The annual prevalence of cannabis abuse in New Zealand is among the highest worldwide, with 14.6 percent of the population aged 14-64 years.
In Australia, the amount of amphetamine-type stimulants seized at the border has increased by 58 percent over the past two years.
Source: United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (Compiled by Kate Kelland, editing by Alison Williams)
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