Covid-19 and meth: Production surged in Asia as economy faltered due to the pandemic, UNODC report says

Covid-19 and meth: Production surged in Asia as economy faltered due to the pandemic, UNODC report says
CNN
1 hr ago
By Joshua Berlinger, CNN
© JACK TAYLOR/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
A motorbike taxi driver holds a methamphetamine pill in January in Bangkok.
Asia's drug cartels adapted quickly to the pandemic in 2020, flooding markets with synthetic narcotics worth tens of billions of dollars even as the global economy ground to a halt, according to a new United Nations report.
Methamphetamine seizures in East and Southeast Asia surged 19% from 2019 to a new record-high, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report found. The organization did not put a dollar figure on the meth trade's value in 2020, but it was believed to be worth between $30 billion and $61 billion in 2019, according to the UNODC.

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