United States remains the world's biggest drug market: UN agency

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2005

VIENNA (AFP) — The United States remains the world's biggest market for illicit drugs but cocaine abuse has also increased rapidly in Central America and the Caribbean, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said in a report released here.

"Though recent official data show that the rate of drug abuse among the general population of the United States has remained stable since 2002," it stood at "a worrying 8.2 percent of the population," the report noted.

It meant that the country with a population of 293 million people remained the "world's biggest market for illicit drugs," it added.

The one improvement it remarked was a significant decrease in the abuse of illicit drugs among high school children, the UN agency said.

The most widely used...