Public Health
Afghanistan Drug Insights 2024
The Afghanistan Drug Insights 2024 is a set of three reports that provide latest data and in-depth analysis on aspects of the evolving drug situation in Afghanistan. Opium production in Afghanistan remains low for the second consecutive year with production at 433 tons in 2024 confirmed new estimates from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Although this figure represents a 30 per cent increase from 2023 production still remains 93 per cent below 2022 levels when the de facto authorities began enforcing a country-wide drug ban.
The series on Afghanistan drug insights
The Afghanistan Drug Insights are a series of reports that provide latest data and in-depth analysis on aspects of the evolving drug situation in Afghanistan. This second volume provides the latest figures on national and regional opium poppy production in 2024 and the challenges farmers are facing as they adapt to new economic conditions. The remaining reports in the series will cover a range of topics related to the drug situation in Afghanistan including the socioeconomic situation of farmers after the drugs ban; drug trafficking and supply; and treatment availability and drug use.
Acknowledgements
This report was prepared by the Research and Trend Analysis Branch United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) supported by the UNODC Information Centre for Researching and Analysing Translational threats related to Drugs and Crime. It is part of a series of shorter reports for 2024 that detail several developments in Afghanistan.
6. Methods
A structured survey of drug treatment facilities operating in Afghanistan was conducted in December 2022. This survey was based on discussions held with the Directorate of DDR from MoPH as well as with civil society organizations (CSOs) involved in providing drug treatment services and it covered all provinces in the country.
Afghanistan drug insights volume 2: 2024 opium production and rural development
Opium production and the challenges faced by farmers after two years of reduced poppy cultivation
2. Main conclusions
The evolving drug market landscape in Afghanistan influenced by recent drug policy changes may further strain the already limited treatment options for drug rehabilitation as documented in this report. Most of the treatment services in the country are provided by residential DTCs which may not fully address the diverse treatment needs and the number of people in need of treatment in the country which could benefit from integrated communitybased services tailored to less severe cases. Additionally while women make up a substantial proportion of people using drugs in the country over half of the facilities providing SUD treatment offer services exclusively for men. Moreover only just above one-third of the provinces have facilities with services available for women.
Myanmar Opium Survey 2024
Cultivation, Production, and Implications
Three years after the military takeover in Myanmar poppy cultivation has stabilized at recent high levels suggesting that the internal conflict remains a critical factor in illicit cultivation in Myanmar. The 2024 survey points to a slowing down of cultivation with a slight decrease of 4% to 45200 ha from 47100 ha in 2023. Although area under cultivation has not returned to peaks reached in 2013 at nearly 58000 ha poppy cultivation remains robust. Historically illicit poppy cultivation in Myanmar and Southeast Asia in general was typically of small poorly organized and sparse plots. Field and ethnographic research point to longstanding traditions of small-scale poppy cultivation sometimes as a cash or insurance crop but also for household use. However in recent years cultivation in Myanmar shifted toward more sophisticated practices that increased yields. National yield estimates from 2022’s survey indicated an average of 19.8kg of opium per hectare of poppy which was a substantial increase from 14kg per hectare in 2021. In 2023 the national yield estimate rose again to 22.9kg per hectare—the highest ever recorded by UNODC. By 2024 yields declined slightly by 4% to 22kg/hectare.
Introduction
The world’s decades-long response to HIV is at an inflection point. The 2024 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) global report The Urgency of Now: AIDS at a Crossroads demonstrated that the world now has the means to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 (1).
Conclusion
At this turning point in the global HIV response the world will either take the path to end AIDS as a public health threat or allow the pandemic to continue and risk a dangerous HIV resurgence.