The number of drug addicts in Russia has increased by 9 times over the last ten years.
3,000 foreigners were arrested for drug trafficking in Russia in 2006. The locations where the drug traffickers were from were Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan.
In 2008, there were 517,389 registered drug abusers in Russia. Other estimates have placed the total number of drug users in Russia as high as 4 million.
90 percent of the opiates smuggled on to the black market in Russia originated from Afghanistan.
28.7 percent of opium farmers claimed poverty alleviation as the reason for growing opium in Afghanistan.
4 percent of the population, or 920,000 people, are estimated drug users in Afghanistan.
Opium poppy cultivation has increased on average by 34 percent every year since the Taliban was disposed of in 2001.
In the National Drug Threat Assessment 2007, the report states that Mexican and Colombia Drug Trafficking Organizations “together generate, remove, and launder between $8.3 billion and $24.9 billion in wholesale distribution proceeds from Mexico-produced marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin and South American cocaine and heroin annually.” On the Northern border, “an estimated $5.2 billion to $21.2 billion is generated through the wholesale distribution of marijuana and MDMA” by Canadian Drug Trafficking Organizations.
28.6 percent of the population in Spain smoked marijuana at least once in their lifetime, and 7.0 percent of the population used cocaine at least once in their lifetime.
There were 5 to 6 million drug users in Russia in 2006, according to the US State Department.