UNODC REPORT 2013: Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS) and Other Drugs – Challenges for Asia and the Pacific 2013

Bangkok (Thailand), 8 November 2013 - Methamphetamine remains the top illicit drug threat in East and Southeast Asia, according to a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released today. Seizures of methamphetamine in both pill and crystalline forms reached record highs there in 2012, with 227 million methamphetamine pills seized - a 60 per cent increase from 2011 and a more-than seven-fold increase since 2008 - along with 11.6 metric tonnes of crystalline methamphetamine, a 12 per cent rise from 2011. The report, Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS) and Other Drugs - Challenges for Asia and the Pacific 2013, says that methamphetamine is now the first or second most used illicit drug in 13 of the 15 Asia Pacific countries surveyed. The use of methamphetamine increased in Cambodia, China, Japan, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam.

UNODC: Record-high methamphetamine seizures in Southeast Asia 2013 by Jutta Pflueg