| October 21, 2009 | (Use j/k keys to navigate)  Email to a friend  Permalink |
2009 UN World Drug report
The 2009 United Nations World Drug report, released earlier this year, notes that 2009 marks "the end of the first century of drug control (it all started in Shanghai in 1909)", and that the illicit drug market worldwide has now become a $320 billion-per-year industry. As drug-related violence in Mexico appears to continue unabated, and crackdowns in Afghanistan are being made against its massive opium crops, new efforts are also being made worldwide in methods of enforcement and treatment of recovering addicts. Collected here are a handful of recent images from the rough world of illegal drugs across the globe. (37 photos total)
Heroin addict Ganamgul complains that his body is in pain going through withdrawal on the second day of the detox program, after 17 years of addiction, at the Kabul Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center September 28, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since the center opened in May 2009 it has rehabilitated over 400 addicts in its 100 bed facility with temporary funding from International Organization of Migration (IOM) and help from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). The program lasts for 45 days combining both detox and rehabilitation. The center houses the 2 leading organizations that offer detox programs, Wadan and Nejat. A US Department of State report 2009 states that there are an estimated two million drug users in the country with at least 50-60,000 drug addicts in Kabul alone. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
A heroin addict holds a used syringe in his mouth after shooting up in an abandoned lot in San Juan, Friday, July 31, 2009. Some of the South American heroin trafficked through Puerto Rico en route to the United States is sold locally, which has led to an island-wide epidemic, according to health and law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) #
Colombian navy soldiers lay out packages of seized cocaine in Golfo de Uraba August 20, 2009. At least 3.4 tons of cocaine were confiscated and three people were arrested, one of them injured by Colombian navy troops, during a raid in Punta Arenas, Golfo de Uraba, on the border with Panama, authorities said. (REUTERS/Navy Press) #
A mannequin dressed as a stereotypical drug smuggler is displayed at the drug museum inside the Secretary of Defense headquarters in Mexico City, Thursday Aug. 6, 2009. The museum is used by the Mexican army to teach soldiers the ways drug smugglers operate and live. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) #
In a picture taken on July 3, 2009, a Thai drug addict patient walks out from a herbal steaming room at the Thamkrabok Monastery in Phraputthabat, around 140 km north of Bangkok, Thailand. Growing numbers of desperate drug and alcohol abusers - from Thailand and around the world - are visiting the extreme detox and rehab centre at Thamkrabok Monastery after failing to find other effective conventional treatments. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images) #
Sarab village resident and opium addict Islam Beg talks about his living conditions after having an early morning smoke in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan on July 13, 2009. "I don't have a life. I don't have anything. It's finished. Everything was spent on opium," he said. In dozens of mountain hamlets in this remote corner of Afghanistan, opium addiction has become so entrenched that whole families - from toddlers to old men - are addicts. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) #
Mexican soldiers prepare to burn packets of marijuana during an operation near a clandestine methamphetamine drug laboratory in Tamazula, Mexico, Monday, Aug 10, 2009. According to federal law enforcement authorities, the lab had the capacity to produce about one ton of methamphetamine, or crystal meth, each week. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar) #
Alleged drug trafficker Juan Daniel Carranco Salazar looks on as he is presented to the media in Mexico City, Monday, Aug, 10, 2009. Carranco and other suspects were detained during an operation in Cancun, Mexico. Salazar was arrested along with two associates in Cancun Monday, and soldiers seized six pistols and a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine from the suspects. He was ordered held pending investigation.(AP Photo) #
A recovering drug user reads a book in the dormitory of the women's branch of "The City Without Drugs" rehabilitation centre in the Ural city of Alapayevsk, some 180 km (112 miles) of Yekaterinburg, Russia on August 29, 2009. The center was opened in 1999 to cure drug addicts who have voluntarily decided to fight narcotic dependency. An average medical course, mostly based on psychological treatment, stipulates a one-year confinement. (REUTERS/Konstantin Salomatin) #
A US Marine dog handler attached to Fox Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines takes a break from patrolling beside a field of marijuana during day three of Operation Germinate into the restive Bhuji Bhast Pass in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, on October 9, 2009. (DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images) #
A law enforcement official talks to unidentified people during a round-up in Columbia, S.C. on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009. Federal and local agents charged more than 100 people with federal drug, weapon and immigration violations in what they are calling a vast conspiracy in South Carolina. (AP Photo/The State, Erik Campos) #
Police officers from the district of Ar Gul, swing away with long sticks to eradicate a patch of illegally grown opium poppies in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan on July 16, 2009. Two years ago, opium - the raw ingredient used to make heroin - was grown on nearly half a million acres in Afghanistan, the largest illegal narcotics crop ever produced by a modern nation. A government crackdown on poppy cultivation has spelled economic disaster for many communities throughout the country. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) #
A recovering drug addict stands in a doorway at the CDLDA rehab center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009. Mexico's burgeoning drug trade has fed a growing drug abuse problem, particularly in border cities where gangs have a heavy presence. Scores of rehabilitation centers have opened their doors in recent years but after gunmen stormed into a rehab center in Ciudad Juarez last week, federal authorities are investigating if some of these clinics are also being used as recruiting and training centers by drug cartels. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias) #
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The body of an unidentified man hangs from his neck under a bridge on the old Rosarito highway as authorities stand by in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009. Authorities found the dead man beaten, naked and castrated, and have not identified him but believe he is Rogelio Sanchez, a Baja California state government official who went missing this week. No suspects were named. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias) #
A policeman puts his hand in a bag containing dozens of spent bullet casings that he helped collect from the Morro dos Macacos slum after a shootout between drug gangs, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 17, 2009. A police helicopter was shot down by the gangs when it tried to intervene in the battle, leaving two policemen killed and two injured in the crash. (REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes) #
A recovered heroin addict raises his hands as he and others participate in a praying session at the "Outcry in the Barrio" ministry in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on September 9, 2009. The ministry helps drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes to transform their lives through praying to reach detoxification. Drug gangs have targeted rehab centers in the past, accusing them of protecting dealers from rival groups. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo) #
More links and information
U.N. World Drug Report - The Skimmer, TIME Magazine
UN World Drug Report 2009 - Official release
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Amazing set of photo's.
The truth beating again
Picture 16 disgusts me. It's one thing to voluntarily harm oneself, but to offer drugs to an infant, absolutely shameful
fuuuha..
Shocking pictures, and proof of the scourge of drugs on societies everywhere.
What a Wonderful World
Horrified. Have never, will never understand why people do this to themselves.
If there was no economic incentive for Mexico to bring marijuana into the US seems like there might be a few less dead bodies... We all know how well prohibition works! Where would the Chicago mob be without that wonderful boost?
Brutal collection, but important to see. Good work.
holy sh*t
I'm speechless. The pictures of the dead. Oh my.
"...illegally grown opium poppies..."
this brings up the question: are there legally grown opium poppies???
During Prohibition, there was an unlikely alliance between Baptists, who wanted to make sure that alcohol stayed banned for moral reasons, and Bootleggers, who wanted to make sure that their monopoly on alcohol profits was maintained.
It's exactly the same today. Most of the badness that comes from the drug trade today could be ended if we legalized, regulated, and taxed all drugs. No more gang wars, no more addicts hastily injecting in alleys and sharing needles, and billions of dollars saved in law enforcement.
Unfortunately, the Bootleggers and Baptists are back in full force, and they're joined by the Bobbies - the police-industrial complex. The Drug Wars are immensely profitable for these groups, and they'll fight any efforts to end drug prohibition.
I think it's interesting that the more grisly images of death are thought to be more traumatic that the ones of living people actively destroying themselves.
These are some painfully harsh truths. Intense photos. I'm glad I'm not in these situations. @ryanve
Much more disgusted by the harm this "war" does than the effects of the substances themselves
wow 100 years of the war on drugs and look at all of this...... it would appear as if the drugs are winning.
Where are the shots of alcoholics? Or those scraping together pennies just to buy a pack of cigarettes? Why is marijuana, which is nearly impossible to overdose on, shown in the same light at heroin?
The war on drugs is justified only with misinformation. It's time to start talking about the issue rationally.
Great photos. Sickening content.
Good collection. This is a side of reality that must be acknowledged, but I think a positive collection, with pictures of these countries and its people, is in order. This other side, much more rare to the foreigner's perspective, must be recognized as well.
In the meantime, for those interested in Colombia, I recommend visiting shootingcolombia.com.
All these drugs fill the coffers of Swiss Bank A/c holders. If funding towards drugs is stopped half the battle is won and it must start with transparency and disclosure of money
#16 breaks my heart.
#35 the description is horrible !
however nice pictures !
drugs doesn't do anything good to health and community.
Evil acts start with that illegal drug. Throwing your life away for whats worth?
The bridge spanning the gap between real life and Hollywood just became a single stepping stone
These images will burn in my mind a lot longer than the bowl I smoked while I was looking at them.
How easy is to get and use drugs in the "First World Countries". Some times people see it as "Normal". But this is the truth: what we normaly don´t see. Shame on us!
Heavy.
I'm surprised there are no photos of law enforcement and soldiers using the drugs they confiscate. we know it happens, take a look at LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Outlawing drugs will never eliminate abuse. Legalizing drugs eliminates the need to violent actions to control the trade and the need to spend enormous fortunes trying to combat it. That money can then be spent on helping these poor folks who have lost control of their lives, as seen so dramatically here.
#34 is Morpheus!!!
Thanks. I have never seen Crystal Meth before. Now I know.
And I'm sorry but we need to keep up the war on the drug scourge. Picture #16 is my reason why.
The only thing more shocking than the pictures of the dead, are the pictures of the children living in a world they will never be able to control. Addicted by birth, they have no chance of escape.
Sad and scary.
The images of the severed head, shot up bodies and various bloodied things did not disturb me as much as the children in the presence of addicts who don't care. I have never been able to understand how people can do this not just to themselves, but to their own children. And the grandfather practically forcing his infant grandchild to do it? Words cannot possibly describe how disgusted I am. I wish I could snatch those poor souls away from all that. If I had one wish that would come true, I would be to rid the world of this plague.
#7, it's not as hard to understand why people become drug addicts as you might think. One moldy piece of fruit (those who would get others hooked in order to make money or fund their own habit) quickly poisons the rest of the bunch. In many cases, the group is doing it and the young have a desperate need to belong. Plus, the feel-good is right now. The nasty, horrifying consequences are hours, months, or years away, and when one is high, those consequences seem still further off. We don't have as much conscious control over our bodies as we like to casually think we do, and we certainly don't have control over large, sweeping social enigmas that give rise to billion dollar drug economies, as a century of world-wide drug wars clearly demonstrates.
Sobering and chilling.
Isn't it a bit risky to stand 5 meters next to a burning sh*tpile of marijuana?
#3 It's obvious that he is joking. Sleep soundly tonight.
¡How bad is the situation in Mexico! :S
The only solution is the death penalty for dealers/traffickers etc!
I feel the same way as responses 13 and 18. The drug war costs us money, but it's seen as a business expense by the druglords. If you want to get rid of them and the violence they generate, out-compete them.
As long as there's a market for the drugs there will always be suppliers. And there will always be people who want the drugs.
So legalizing and regulating the drugs might cause more people to start using, but with increased regulation the drugs will become less harmful and the violent element will be removed entirely. The government gains a bunch of revenue it can spend on drug treatment and stops spending money on the drug war.
The alternative is to continue as things are, which is worse all around.
And don't forget, even if you take away all the drugs kids will choke themselves and sniff markers to get high. The drug war isn't about solving our social problems.
'"...illegally grown opium poppies..."
this brings up the question: are there legally grown opium poppies???
Posted by cXc October 21, 09 01:58 PM '
Yes. Opium is used to make many narcotics prescribed by doctors. It can be formed chemically for pharmaceutical use as well.
#16 breaks my heart as well. the poor child is destined to be an addict with grandparents like that.
one of the best sets here ever!! truly amazing
#16 and #17 remind me of my own childhood, sitting in the livingroom while cigarette smoke filled the rooms from my relatives and the booze was passed from person to person. I am SO glad I never started smoking, or drinking, or any of that. Unfortunately people I care about are not so lucky.
Please keep fighting the war on drugs, and narcotics of all kinds, alcohol, the works. :[ Tell people you know how evil it is, don't do drugs, quit smoking and avoid mainly alcohol based establishments when you go out for dinner. Thanks!
@12
Of course they are. What do you think where do derivatives of morphine used in painkillers come from? Not from Afghanistan though, but from India...
These images merely demonstrate the harms caused to individuals and our communities in our current prevention and control systems for drug sales and drug use. The current solutions to curb drug sales and drug dependence are clearly an incorrect response and these pictures solidify these sad truths.
It is time that we rid ourselves and our communities of political games and sociological ideals as the norm and rather confront reality with research and evidence on how to reduce these harms.
How do we reason that legalizing drugs will help people from destroying their lives? Even if it is true that gang wars would end, the blatant truth is that there is nothing good about using drugs. From Hollywood to Harlem to Mexico and Afghanistan, show me where use of drugs results in anything good. If it is good, why do we see pictures of addicts who want OUT from that lifestyle. We are not created for such folly.
It's pretty obvious that dealers and traffickers do not fear death, therefore death penalty will not stop them. On the other hand, it will increase the violence they apply to others, including police officers. I agree with legalisation.
Full of anticipitation I went to get my Wednesday Big Picture fix, was so in need of sweet pictures but I undrestand life is not sweet.
Thanks for these pictures, it is an awesome collection and I am sure put the lives of many photographers at risk as well.Great blog!
If we just legalize all drugs, and use all the money we waste on this useless 'war on drugs' on education (about drugs), care for addicts and fighting poverty, the world would be such a better place.
This is retarded. Legalize it, regulate it, offer it free to addicts if need be. Take the money out of the drug trade and the killing stops.
A century of criminalizing drug sellers and users has nothing to show for itself but death and misery. Time to go find a new way.
Why are we preventing these people from killing themselves?
These are photos of war. If it were legal, these photos wouldn't exist. The photos of peace would be much more clean, but we won't see that because people are idiots... bottom line.
Great, it seems that there are no drug addicts in the U.S.
@12 You might be growing some on your backyard, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_poppy
Too bad for photo #26! I was beginning to believe we didn't have any kind of drug problem here in America. ;)
Seriously folks, it's such a shame that so many fine, fine Mexican citizens have to suffer in order to get us our weed and 'caine. When it comes to drugs, buy domestic.
I'm hoping I can see the pics that have since been removed. Any suggestions for Google searches that will get me to them will be appreciated.
All this death and violence is because of prohibition.
That guy on #2 looks like hes 3ft tall??
So, the photos of the dead are more objectionable than the close-up of a person injecting himself? I can tell you which makes me shudder more...
"The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." — Albert Einstein
The "War on Drugs" is an excellent example of stupidity.
This is some of the hardest hitting photography I've seen here for a while.
VERY CLEARLY the "war on drugs" isn't working - legalization and social support is the only way we can help people suffering from addiction and end the violence
Hands down the best photo journalism team in America. Please keep "The Big Picture" around forever.
WOW!!!! AMAZING PHOTOS
BUT...
TRULY SAD =/
"How do we reason that legalizing drugs will help people from destroying their lives? Even if it is true that gang wars would end, the blatant truth is that there is nothing good about using drugs. From Hollywood to Harlem to Mexico and Afghanistan, show me where use of drugs results in anything good."
Legalizing drugs will allow them to be taxed to help addicts, allow harm-prevention programs (clean needle distribution, etc.), and end much of the violence associated with drugs.Nearly all violence due to drugs is traced back to prohibition, not the drugs themselves.
How about this? I smoke cannabis multiple times every day, and generally it feels just like when I take any other medicine. I use it to focus, to manage chronic pain, help with my mood (caused by the chronic, and at times debilitating, pain), and for the sheer fun of it. I enjoy getting high, and if I can't...I simply don't. At the very least when it comes to marijuana, there is no real addiction. As for destroying my life...well I'm a psychology student focusing on neurobiology (ie the hard track) at the top university in my state, and am currently studying for the GREs so I can go after a PhD...all that stuff about cannabis being a demotivator? Nothing but bullshit. Thanks to marijuana and its insights, I discovered what I really wanted to do with life (previously I was an engineering major and not doing well because I couldn't be interested in it), got out of a toxic relationship, and improved my grades.
Yep, drugs are SO harmful!
"If it is good, why do we see pictures of addicts who want OUT from that lifestyle. We are not created for such folly.""
I contend both a) you see pictures of addicts of SOME drugs (heroin, crystal meth, and nicotine, which is legal), but not of ALL drugs, because a great many of them are non-addictive and harmless (marijuana, the psychedelics), most of the problems are caused by the drugs being illegal and b) we are not created at all.
So very sad and wrong that some people offer drugs to children, and especially their own grandchildren! I'm deeply shocked and outraged.
Not to mention the rest of the issues displayed here. Things people do to themselves...
There has to be a better solution to this problem. If only we could figure it out sooner and get to the core of the issue: convincing people not to start using drugs to begin with. It never ends well.
I'm surprised. One thing I have always loved about The Big Picture is its editors' ability to include images that convey the proverbial two sides of the coin. In a collection of images titled UN World Drug Report, where are the photos that represent the HUGE demand for drugs in the U.S.? Isn't that a big part of the picture as well?
WOW!
another great set of strong pics!
daily food for the news here in Mexico
I don´t watch them anymore
It would have been nice if #29's caption had said "chunks of brain on the wall" instead of just "blood-stained wall". Blood is one thing...chunks, totally different...
Reminds me of Breaking Bad. Great show, 3rd season coming up.
Drugs ruin lives, that's for sure. I'd like to try when I'm eighty or something xD
UN has recently pre-longed their tactic against drugs by saying the global policies are "showing progress worldwide".
When will we stop this terrible war?
This is horrible. I am pretty upset with the "grandfather"(although not acting like one) in photo 16. His eyes are filled with darkness in this picture. I am also sad to see that my hometown, Columbia, is the only North American city in this whole group of pictures. Thanks for ending with a positive and hopeful picture.
Just for nothing
Prohibition causes crime.
Re: Picture 16. Many people are simply unable to provide food for themselves or their families. They smoke opium to keep the hunger pangs at bay. When the starving babies cry for food, they give them what they have to quiet them and take away their pain.
shocking but truly pictures, im just kinda upset..first of all pic #16 so sad but what the hell are this people doing? second thing.. what a shame on this people that never have been in mexico, thinks that we all Mexicans are like u see in this tijuana pics, and that we have donkeys in front of our houses, Needs to read,travel,learn more abt it,the truth is that drugs does exist around the world and yes, mexicans send drugs to US but thats because americans use them for tons, and buy just what they cant produce.
i wont to ask you do thls picture in this sit
Reasons to live and to remain healthy need to outweigh the desire to escape.
Drug abuse is a primarily symptom caused when greed and power are mixed with a lack of will by the hapless.
LEGALIZED DRUGS CREATE DRUG DEPENDENT NATIONS. Review some history especially the drug dens of China. Look at these photos. History is close to repeating itself.
Faith and hope that there is something better must abound with the power of action. Individuals, families, communities, governments and, religious groups must stand together in stating that drug abuse is destructive.
Many must stand together against the lie, false escape and, popular myth that makes forbidden drugs desired.
Exchange "Try it you'll like it" for "Choose life, you are loved."
A little dope is NOT OK. A little dope evidences division.
My choice to live is based in one who give his all for me, Jesus Christ.
What about the Netherlands? Drugs are "legal" there..maybe they don't have problems?
@14 / Jake - what are you talking about? I think most would agree that the most traumatic photo is 16...
Lets keep drugs illegal, so drug dealers and peers can push drugs to our children. That will keep them safe.
As common rule, the big picture is great...i guess this colletion is not, why?
Because once again the drug problem is focalized in the producer countries... why there aren't pictures of the real consumers in the highly rich countries (United States, UK, Spain, Germany etc etc etc), which keep the production high and constant?
Unfortunately, this is a really biased compilation.
Something interesting about #15 and #16:
The man is quoted as saying, "I don't have a life. I don't have anything. It's finished. Everything was spent on opium,"
Despite this regret, he still feels it's okay to give opium to his grandchild? I suppose using opium must be really part of the culture
So sad what addiction does -- even sadder is the violence that prohibition creates.
at the very least marijuana should not be illegal. prohibition of weed + the war on drugs actually creates the problems they are intended to fix. 1 example: people blame marijuana and give a reason for it to be illegal by saying it is a gateway drug, when in reality making it illegal and grouping it with the other heavier black market drugs is what makes it a gateway drug. i recommend watching The Union on google video
PROHIBITION CAUSES VIOLENCE. Murders in America plunged four straight years after alcohol prohibition was repealed. That is not a coincidence. Without the current prohibition of drugs, the people killed due to drug war violence would be alive today. What a shame the war on drugs is.
I think #16 is a load of bull. The photographer probably told him to do this; a kid like that couldn't know how to smoke anything let alone an opium pipe. lol a kid like that could probably barely drink water on his own.
Yea and banning drugs will magically solve the problem of abuse, because we all know you can magically take these things away from everybody everywhere... Yea right. Criminalization serves for nothing but to promote the problems rather than solve them. I GUARANTEE this, it is 100% fact; how can jailing a drug addict help anything? It doesn't, it exacerbates problems and formes organized crime. Sometimes people need OPTIONAL support and harm reduction, not a prison term.
Lastly, cannabis is a healing herb and should not be placed in the same category as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, or even nicotine and alcohol. My dying mother needs cannabis so that she can see her grandkids grow up, or else she dies from multiple sclerosis related complications. This is fact; according to her doctor there is no other treatment option left for her, it's cannabis or the coffin. She should not be viewed in the same light as a person who shoots another man's head off, nor should the majority of people who ingest cannabis. People need to grow up on the cannabis issue, if you drink alcohol you have absolutely zero room to say anything. Come on with that one, I've seen more damage from responsible drinking than irresponsible pot smoking.
Almost every picture above comes from drug-producing countries, poor countries... what about the pictures of "first world countries" which are the main consumers? Let´s take the example of Mexico... I see many pictures of Mexico, mainly Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, but what about some pictures of El Paso, TX or San Diego, CA. The common ground for these cities is that they both are border cities with the biggest market, the US! The same relation happens in the UE, think of Spain and Morocco.
A lot of comments talking about the "war on drugs", but this term is biased to drug production.,.. why not talk about a "war on consumption"?
Yes, send the troops to Afghanistan... but would it be better and even cheaper to educate people? Wars always produce benefits for a really small minority. Why not ask ourselves who is getting a profit on fighting this war?
Yes, semnd
For those who think continuing this war against drugs will stop people like in picture 16 from harming children have another think coming.
Blaming the drugs for the stupid, careless and irresponsible actions of people using drugs early excuse them of thing they will very likely do even if they never ever uncounted drugs.
And as for nothing good ever coming from drug use, try thinking of it this way; The vast majority of drug use never leads to anything bad.
Stop this drug war NOW, it causes more harm than good and lets other harm go untreated