UN warns of increase in heroin deaths

The UN drug body has warned that record poppy output in Afghanistan will translate into a spike in heroin-induced deaths, with death rates already rising in Europe and the US.

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached its highest level last year since records began in 1998, according to the annual report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Afghanistan accounts for about 85% of opium production and 77% of worldwide heroin production, the UN’s annual World Drug Report showed.

“We know there is much larger supply of opiates that will be translating into heroin. It’s important to warn that the supply is there,” Angela Me, one of the main authors of the report, told reporters in Vienna.

A major impact in global use of heroin and related dangers is likely to appear in the coming year as opiates take one to two years to reach consumer markets such as Europe.

Afghan supply is going up as farmers have more reasons to grow poppy than other crops.