VIENNA (Reuters) - Fast-growing economies in Asia and the Middle East are fuelling global demand for synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine, as their populations work long hours and grow affluent, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said while theuse of drugs like meth, amphetamine and ecstasy has stabilisedin developed countries, people in fast-growing economies aregetting a taste for the brain-damaging drugs.
They are being used as "a cheap and available tonic for ourfast and competitive times, for entertainment in discos (mostlyin the West), and for greater stamina in assembly lines andbehind a steering wheel in the East," UNODC Executive DirectorAntonio Maria Costa said, presenting the report.
The drugs were notorious in the United States during the1990s but health crackdowns have helped to stem usage, thereport said.
Dealers have moved to new territory, targeting countrieswhere it is harder for authorities to clamp down on the market.
UNODC said the annual global market for these drugs isworth an estimated $65 billion (40 billion pounds) and thatusage exceeds that of cocaine and heroin combined. The mark-upbetween wholesale and retail prices can be as high as 400percent.
In 2006, nearly half of Asian countries reported a rise inmeth use, while Saudi Arabia seized 12 tonnes of amphetamine, aquarter of all synthetic drugs seized in the world that year.
"Synthetic drugs are falsely perceived as being harmless,"Costa said, adding that they can cause mental health problems,kidney failure and internal bleeding as well as brain damage.
"Meth can be cooked up in the kitchen and pills can bepressed in a garage. Suppliers quickly adapt to the latesttrends, and cater to local markets," UNODC said.
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
