Publications

On 8 February 2011 in the Courneuve, a Paris suburb in the Seine-Saint Denis department, approximately 700 cannabis plants were discovered in a clandestine indoor plantation by the investigators of the OCRIEST (Central office on illegal immigration and employment) and the OCRTIS (Central office for the repression of drug-related offences).

Precursor trafficking draws little attention as efforts are focused on seizures of finished products listed as narcotics. Yet, this trafficking is a reality that now touches all continents and makes use of all major global trade routes.

2015 was marked by record cocaine seizures - close on 11 tonnes - on French territory.

Captagon, in the overwhelming majority of cases, aside from the classic "fakes", is now simply another "street name" for amphetamine or speed. 

The objective of this issue of Drugs, international challenges is to take stock of the relations sustained by drug control and development policies, initially returning to the concept of "alternative development" so as to clarify its intricacies and limitations.

The international landscape is becoming more complex and polarised on legislative drug issues, as the last Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has shown.

This thirteenth issue of Drugs, International Challenges is devoted to the prevailing situation in terms of drug trafficking, drug use and public policies in Georgia, a Caucasian country with a population of 3.7 million.

Unlike in other parts of the world, poppy cultivation and opium use are recent phenomena in Mexican history.

In French Polynesia, a major concern has arisen in recent years about the use of methamphetamine, imported from the United States in the form of crystals, known as “ice”.

In the 2000s, Brazil was confronted with the expansion of crack cocaine use, particularly among disadvantaged groups in its main urban centres.