The annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna warns that the expansion of illegal drug markets, synthetic drugs that are cheap and easy to produce, would change trade and be associated with deadly consequences for users. Whether it’s fentanyl in the US or methamphetamine in Afghanistan: synthetic drugs are booming. And environmental destruction and crime in the Amazon basin is further fueled by drugs.

The number of narcotic users who inject drugs in 2021 was estimated at 13.2 million, 18% more than previously assumed, according to UNODC data. In the same year, the number of people using drugs worldwide increased to over 296 million, a 23% increase over the previous decade. Meanwhile, the number of people suffering from substance use disorders has increased to 39.5 million, a 45% increase in a decade.

According to the UNODC, Afghanistan’s national drug ban has reduced previously booming opium production, with this year’s harvest drastically reduced, according to reports. What could be beneficial globally would come at the expense of many farmers who lack alternative sources of income. However, there is also a global trend in Afghanistan, as the country is also a major methamphetamine producer in the region, which could see a shift towards synthetic drugs.

Under the slogan “cheap and easy”, the drug report warns of the growing dominance of synthetic addictive substances, because the cheap, simple and quick production of these drugs is changing illegal markets. The criminals who manufacture methamphetamine – the most illicitly manufactured drug in the world – use several strategies to evade authorities: new synthesis routes, new bases of operations and the uncontrolled use of precursors are the means to circumvent regulation.

Fentanyl is another example of the synthetic substance that dramatically changed the opioid market in North America, with fatal consequences. In 2021, manufactured fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, accounted for most of the estimated 90,000 overdose deaths in North America.

Pharmaceutical fentanyl is approved for the treatment of severe pain often associated with advanced cancer. However, illegally manufactured fentanyl is sold illegally because of its heroin-like effects and is often mixed with heroin or other drugs, such as cocaine, or compressed into counterfeit pills.

And in Europe, while the war in Ukraine has wiped out traditional cocaine and heroin routes, here too the global trend is striking, with signs that the conflict could trigger an expansion in the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs. The combination of war and drugs also affects Africa’s Sahel region, where illicit trade serves to finance armed groups and non-state insurgents.

This report also devotes a separate chapter to the connection between drug trafficking and environmental crimes in the Amazon basin, as well as clinical trials with psychedelics and the medical use of marijuana. The “World Drug Report 2023” also examines the correlation between social and economic inequalities and the drug problem, as well as the resulting environmental destruction and human rights violations.

Chile is facing the consequences of the largest rainfall episode since 1993. The amount of precipitation at the weather station in Maule was almost 800 mm in just 72 hours. Rain in extraordinary amounts caused by atmospheric flow leaves people dead and missing.

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

Chilean authorities on Saturday declared a disaster zone in several regions of the country, from Valparaíso to Biobío, as problems were registered in central and southern Chile due to the incessant rains caused by the crossing of a frontal system and the action of a storm atmospheric flow .

Home and Public Safety Minister Carolina Tohá stressed that the government had declared a disaster zone “due to the whole scenario that we have and also the concerns of the authorities”.

“It was decided to enact the Disaster Zone Ordinance in all affected regions, from Valparaíso to Biobío. This makes it possible that once the planned emergency resources are depleted, additional resources can be deployed,” said the head of the Chilean ministry.

The heavy rains caused the Mapocho and Maipo rivers, which rise in the Andes and cross the Chilean capital of Santiago, to burst their banks. Other rivers that cross the central zone of Chile have also burst their banks, such as the Cachapoal, the Tinguiririca and the Teno.

According to the presidential delegate of the Santiago metropolitan area, Constanza Martínez, it was “a very heavy rain and very little time” that followed a structural drought, she said. He added that in some areas of the mountains it has been the heaviest rainfall since 1993.

The government released a new tally on Sunday, reporting two dead, six missing and nearly eight thousand isolated. There are 7,977 isolated people and 3,383 homeless. Regarding housing construction, the government stressed that 1,951 were slightly damaged, 751 were badly damaged and 54 were totaled.

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

Images captured from the air and broadcast on local television in cities like Coltauco and Licantén show the magnitude of the crisis. In the first case, in the O’Higgins region and 120 kilometers south of Santiago, the estuary of the Cachapoal River flooded 80% of the city, leaving 200 people isolated. In Licantén, Maule region and 210 kilometers from the capital, 700 people were isolated and almost all their buildings, including their hospital, were flooded due to the flooding of the Mataquito River.

The overflowing of the rivers caused disruptions on some of the most important highways, such as the one that connects the country from north to south and the one that runs from Santiago to the city and port of Valparaíso. In addition, railway bridges were damaged by the force of the rivers.

Some regions hit by the floods were hit by massive wildfires last summer that destroyed 439,000 hectares and claimed 26 lives. The heavy rains that began on Thursday were concentrated for a few hours, mainly in the mountain range and foothills of the Andes, where it usually snows. This led to severe hill erosion and a rapid increase in river flows.

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

CARABINEROS DE CHILE

According to data from meteorological stations, the regions from Maule to Biobío recorded the highest rainfall. According to Meteorologia de Chile, accumulations of over 500 mm occurred near the Andes.

In Maule, the Rio Claro station, located at an altitude of 550 meters, almost at the confluence with the Maule River, recorded almost 600 mm of rain. Another station in Bullileo added 772 mm in 72 hours to 3 p.m. Sunday.

The heavy rainfall and snowfall between Chile and Argentina is due to a highintensity atmospheric flow that originates in the Pacific and transports enormous amounts of moisture to the Andes. Since the isotherm is high, that is, the temperature at high altitude reaches only 0 °C, precipitation falls as rain and in excessive amounts in many places where precipitation should come in the form of snow.

CONICET

Atmospheric fluxes are long, concentrated regions of the atmosphere that carry humid air from the tropics to higher latitudes. Depending on the region of the world, humid air combined with high wind speeds leads to heavy rain and snow.

These extreme precipitation events can cause flash floods, landslides, and catastrophic damage to life and property. Although atmospheric flows come in many shapes and sizes, those that contain the greatest amounts of water vapor can result in extreme rainfall and flooding, often terminating over watersheds that are prone to flooding.

Such events can cause road delays, trigger landslides, and cause catastrophic damage to life and property. A wellknown example of an atmospheric flow is the “Pineapple Express,” a powerful atmospheric flow that can transport moisture from the tropics near Hawaii to the west coast of the United States.

A man died in the Saint Lawrence River in the L’Ange-Gardien sector near Quebec on Saturday evening.

Local firefighters received a call just before 10pm relating to a person in distress on the riverbank along the Côte-de-Beaupré.

The 50-year-old, who was traveling alone on his personal watercraft, broke down and had to swim back to shore.

PHOTO GUY MARTEL-QMI AGENCY

“He asked the local area for help and then decided to return to his plane as the tide rose,” explains Sûreté du Québec (SQ) spokesman Stéphane Tremblay. He got into trouble and eventually drowned a few tens of meters from his boat.

PHOTO GUY MARTE-QMI AGENCY

The Coast Guard has been called to help search for the missing man underwater. He was found around 10:45 p.m. and pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

According to the SQ, the man was not wearing a life jacket when his body was recovered.

High tribute

This is the fifth drowning accident in Quebec in a few days. After the Lac-Saint-Jean event, four other events of the same type occurred on June 23 and 24.

On Friday evening, a 22-year-old young man sank in the waters of the Saint Lawrence River on Verdun Beach in Montreal. The twenty-year-old was outside the monitored bathing area.

During the night from Friday to Saturday, a 26-year-old man from Rouyn-Noranda went swimming in Lake Opasatica in Témiscamingue and never returned. His body was found the next day by divers off the Sûreté du Québec.

Another 29-year-old man sank to the bottom of Lac Beauchamp near Amos in Abitibi on Saturday. The latter would have fallen off his paddle board without a personal buoyancy aid.

This weekend’s massacre brought the number of drownings in Quebec to 35 in 2023. According to the Life Saving Society website, 24 people drowned on the same day last year.

Boating safety

The SQ conducted safety equipment inspections on the Saint Lawrence River in the Quebec City area on Sunday.

Sûreté patrol boats have criss-crossed the river’s waters to meet boaters and ensure they comply with regulations in force on the water.