A new ecstasy-like drug produced in China that has been linked to at least 125 deaths is feared to have spread to Britain, the National Crime Agency has warned in an alert to summer festival-goers. The United Nations (UN) has ordered a worldwide ban on N-Ethylnorpentylone in an attempt to close down its production in illegal psychoactive drugs “factories” in China which have flooded the market. It has been found in one in 20 samples of Ecstasy, or MDMA, tested by The Loop, a social enterprise set up by professor Fiona Measham, a former Government drugs adviser, which will this summer provide its free drug testing service at around a dozen festivals.

As the UNODC put it, this was “one of the largest and most successful counternarcotics operations” in Asia’s history. Myanmar’s army and police, which conducted the raids, are naturally pleased. But the story behind the raid is quite messy — one involving double-crossing traffickers, Chinese mafia and even the White House. Myanmar’s government has known about the labs for years. The same goes for the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Chinese intelligence. Even The World knew it was there, writing in 2015 that the area contains “a number of heroin and meth refineries.” The labs went undisturbed because they were protected by a militia — one that happens to serve under Myanmar’s army.

As cannabis companies eye expansion in European and South American markets, Asia is poised to be a new frontier for some major Canadian pot players. Despite being the world’s most populous continent, it is estimated that Asia’s cannabis usage is about two per cent, or 85.5 million people, according to London-based cannabis data provider Prohibition Partners. However, several Asian countries are on the cusp of embracing medical cannabis and the continent could see its marijuana market grow to as much as US$5.8 billion by 2024, Prohibition Partners said in a recent report. That’s caught the attention of some Canadian cannabis players including Canopy Growth Corp.

Beijing's leading drug enforcement body has blamed the legalization of marijuana in Canada and parts of the United States for a spike in the amount of drugs smuggled into the country, describing it as a "new threat to China." Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, said that the number of cannabis users in China had grown by more than 25% in 2018, rising to about 24,000 people. "In two years, we have found increasing cannabis trafficked from North America to China," he said, though he conceded there were "few cannabis abusers in China" relative to the total population. Anyone found with more than 50 grams of a controlled substance can face the death penalty in China. (See also: China nominates Hong Kong occupy-era police chief for UN post)

La investigación sobre ciudadanos chinos dedicados al lavado de dinero procedente del narcotráfico ha revelado un nuevo modus operandi en el lavado internacional de capitales a través de la transferencia de dinero a China. Estos ciudadanos chinos envían el dinero procedente del narcotráfico recaudadao en Estados Unidos hasta los cárteles mexicanos, y lo hacen pasándolo a través de China mediante servicios de aplicaciones bancarias chinas y usando teléfonos desechables. Estas personas juegan un papel clave en los movimientos internacionales de blanqueo de dinero, y actúan como si fueran una especie de “brokers” del lavado.

China has made your iPhone, your Nikes. Now, it wants to grow your cannabis. Two of China’s 34 regions are quietly leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, the nonintoxicating compound that has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond. They are doing so even though cannabidiol has not been authorized for consumption in China, a country with some of the strictest drug-enforcement policies in the world. “It has huge potential,” said Tan Xin, the chairman of Hanma Investment Group, which in 2017 became the first company to receive permission to extract cannabidiol here in southern China. The chemical is marketed abroad.

China nominated a former Hong Kong police chief to lead the UN’s drug crimes division, the first time it has sought a global post since detaining Interpol’s chief last year. The effort to install Andy Tsang Wai-hung, who oversaw the department during the 2014 Occupy Central protests, is a sign of China’s support for multilateralism and the United Nations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. The move had been reported by the South China Morning Post. “China is ready to make a greater contribution in cracking down on cross-national organized crime and to cooperate in drug control,” Geng said. Tsang, 61, was in Vienna last month to canvas for votes to lead the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (See also: Beijing says US legalization of marijuana is a 'threat to China')

China propuso a Andy Tsang Wai-hung, exjefe de la policía de Hong Kong, como candidato a dirigir la Oficina de Naciones Unidas contra las Drogas y el Crimen (UNODC), según el periódico South China Morning Post. Tsang, de 61 años, dirigió la Fuerza de Policía de Hong Kong durante las protestas de Occupy en 2014, un año después había sido una figura divisoria en la ciudad debido a su duro enfoque para manejar las manifestaciones. Tsang visitó Viena, donde tiene su sede la UNODC, para encabezar una delegación china en su calidad de director adjunto de la Comisión Nacional de Control de Estupefacientes de Beijing. Además habría buscado el apoyo de varios países para su candidatura a la UNODC.

For nearly two decades Estonia battled a fentanyl epidemic so severe its overdose death rate was almost six times the European average. Once fentanyl landed, heroin disappeared. After Estonian police choked off fentanyl supply in 2017, users turned to cocktails of other kinds of synthetic drugs, including amphetamines, alpha-PVP, a dangerous stimulant also known as flakka, and prescription drugs. There are signs that the U.S. is on a similar path, tipping from plant-based drugs like heroin to synthetic ones like fentanyl and methamphetamine. That could herald big changes and cement the role of China -- an important source of illicit synthetic drugs -- as a vital link in the worldwide drug trafficking business. (See also: What we can learn from a tiny Baltic country's two-decade fentanyl crisis)

The Transnational Institute (TNI) has always believed in the need to find global answers to global problems, been a strong defender of multilateralism and an advocate of a well-functioning United Nations which stands as the guarantor of universal human rights. On the drugs question, our position is straightforward: drug control should respect human rights. An accessible but comprehensive primer on why TNI believes that human rights must be at the heart of any debate on drug control.

Police in Myanmar this week announced the largest synthetic drug seizure on record in Southeast Asia. Between February and April, security forces seized more than 200 million tablets of methamphetamine, 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of crystal meth, 300 kilograms of heroin and 3,750 kilograms of liquid 3-methylfentanyl (3MF). "The amount of 3MF is truly incredible. 3MF is 10 times stronger than fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine. That makes it equivalent to a few thousand tons of morphine — or several billion doses. That has to be for global supply, not just regional," Myanmar expert Richard Horsey told DW.

Chinese cannabis-related stocks have been getting way too high this year for Beijing’s taste, prompting a crackdown to control the investor mania. Marijuana growth and consumption is illegal in China, but cultivation of hemp is allowed in the southern province of Yunnan and in the northern province of Heilongjiang, which legalised the trade in 2010 and 2017 respectively. Though tightly controlled, China is the world’s largest hemp producing country and the biggest exporter of hemp paper and textiles, according to official figures. Hemp contains just a trace of psychoactive component THC, and is used industrially in things like clothing, paper and seed products.

Over the past decade, methamphetamine use has grown more popular in Myanmar, Thailand and Southern China. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with individuals who use methamphetamine, this briefing sheds light on the importance of promoting an environment that reinforces, rather than undermines, the ability of people who use methamphetamine to regulate their drug use, preserve their health and adopt safer practices.

Download the briefing (PDF)

U.S. law enforcement officials say Chinese “money brokers” represent one of the most worrisome new threats in the war on drugs. Small cells of Chinese criminals have upended the way narcotics cash is laundered and are displacing the Mexican and Colombian money men that have long dominated the trade. Chinese brokers are moving vast sums quickly and quietly. Their expertise: routing cartel drug profits from the United States to China then on to Mexico with a few clicks of a burner phone and Chinese banking apps – and without the bulky cash ever crossing borders. The launderers pay small Chinese-owned businesses in the United States and Mexico to help them move the funds. Most contact with the banking system happens in China, a veritable black hole for U.S. and Mexican authorities.

We want to understand why MDMA is today so cheap, so pure, and so abundant across the UK and the EU. Since 2012, pills have doubled or tripled in strength and now have to be taken in halves if you want to remember your night – or to survive it. There were 65 MDMA-related deaths in 2016 – a fivefold increase from the 13 recorded by the Office for National Statistics in 2011. On dark web markets, prices for kilogrammes of MDMA are now £5,000; 10 years ago it was £30–40K. MDMA used to sell at street level for £60/gramme; now it can be bought for £30. The chemical we’ll buy, PMK-glycidate, caused these changes, as it is being used to make MDMA on an unprecedented, industrial scale.

The issue of cannabis legalisation around the world was once again thrust into the spotlight following a vote by the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs to reclassify it as one that is less dangerous and has medical or therapeutic benefits. Experts said the result could prompt greater medical research and legalisation efforts around the world. But it also illustrated a separate issue: Asian nations are starkly divided on their views towards marijuana use, a not entirely surprising outcome given the efforts made to recognise its benefits in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. Thailand said it would no longer classify cannabis plants and extracts as a Category 5 narcotic – though cannabis buds containing high amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, will remain illegal.