More Successful Drug Rehab Needed For World’s 3.3 Billion Drug Addicts

If the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has it right, the lives of more than three billion people around the world are “ruled by drugs”. To handle the world’s massive drug abuse problem, says the agency, international cooperation among all sectors of society will be needed to provide more interventions and more successful drug rehab programs.

“The lives of at least one out of every 200 people in the world are ruled by drugs,” said Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, in the UNODC’s 2007 World Drug Report. One out of every 200 equals 3,301,112,087, or more than 3.3 billion people suffering from some form of drug addiction or abuse.

“Drug addiction is an illness that must, and can, be prevented and treated. Early detection tests, better therapies and the integration of drug treatment into public health and social services programs can free people from their dependence on drugs,” Costa said. The report suggests that drug rehab for those suffering from drugs is as important an investment in world health as treating HIV, diabetes or TB.

The report estimates that the global supply of and demand for illicit drugs – cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines – remained largely stable from 2005 through 2006. But the report asserts right at the outset that “this does not mean the drug problem has been solved or that we can become complacent. Progress made in some areas is often offset by negative trends elsewhere.” For example, a recent reduction in cocaine supplies into the U.S. has been replaced by “alarming increases in Europe”, the report says. Also, the report warns that cocaine traffickers from Colombia and heroin smugglers from Afghanistan have targeted Africa, a threat that “needs to be addressed quickly to stamp out organized crime, money-laundering and corruption, and to prevent the spread of drug use that could cause havoc across a continent already plagued by many other tragedies.” And while global statistics may show a slight decrease in world production and consumption of cannabis, there has been a dramatic increase in pot smokers seeking drug rehab because “new strains of high-potency cannabis make people sick, not just high.”

In other words, the drug problem is still a runaway train headed straight for a cliff. To actually stop it, the world to needs to change its approach to the drug problem, Costa says. Helping drug addicts back to health through improved drug rehab is as important as destroying illicit crops and disrupting criminal drug networks.

The report concludes that it’s going to require internationally shared responsibility among producing and consuming nations, and among all sectors of society, to eliminate the threat of drugs and answer the enormous need for a  successful drug rehab program for 3.3 billion citizens of Earth.