REPORTE MUNDIAL DE DROGAS - LIBRO NRO 3: SUMINISTRO DE DROGAS

WORLD DRUG REPORT 2020
DRUG SUPPLY
Fig. 19 Global quantities of methamphetamine and methamphetamine precursors seized, a and
dismantled methamphetamine laboratories, 2012–2018
Seizures
(kilograms of methamphetamine equivalents)
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
APAAN
Phenylacetic acid (North America)
Pseudoephedrine
Ephedrine
Dismantled methamphetamine laboratories
10,000
7,500
5,000
2,500
0
Dismantled laboratories (number)
P-2-P (North America)
Pseudoephedrine preparations
Ephedrine preprations
Methamphetamine
Sources: UNODC, responses to the annual report questionnaire; and E/INCB/2019/4 and previous years.
a Only internationally controlled precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine are listed here; P-2-P and its precursor
phenylacetic acid are shown only for North America because in other parts of the world P-2-P and its precursor(s) continue to be mainly
used in the manufacture of amphetamine. APAAN, a precursor for P-2-P, is also shown here, although it is used in the manufacture of not
only methamphetamine but also amphetamine.
precursor chemicals for the manufacture of P-2-P
also seem to have been used in the manufacture of
methamphetamine in Western Europe. 65
While the quantities of methamphetamine seized
have increased rapidly over the past decade, seizures
of internationally controlled chemicals used in the
manufacture of methamphetamine have fluctuated
over the years and showed a clear increase only in
2018, when methamphetamine precursor seizures
almost tripled compared with 2017. The marked
increase was the result of record quantities of P-2-P
linked to methamphetamine manufacture in North
America being seized – an almost ninefold increase
– and the global quantities of ephedrine seized
increasing almost fivefold. By contrast, the reported
number of dismantled laboratories continued to
decline, from 10,600 methamphetamine laboratories
dismantled in 2010 to close to 3,700 in 2017 and
65 EMCDDA and Europol, EU Drug Markets Report 2019 (Luxembourg,
Publications Office of the European Union, 2019).
less than 2,100 in 2018. 66 A possible explanation of
the phenomenon of an expanding market going hand
in hand with fewer and fewer laboratories being dismantled
could be a shift towards operating fewer but
larger laboratories in parallel with a general shift in
production to countries with comparatively limited
interdiction capacities.
Regarding precursor chemicals, it has to be taken
into account that increasing quantities of
methamphetamine are now being produced from
pre-precursors that are not under international
control; for example, substances such as benzaldehyde
and nitroethane are used in the clandestine
manufacture of P-2-P, in both North America and
Europe. Similarly, benzyl chloride and sodium
cyanide are used in the clandestine manufacture of
phenylacetic acid, which is also used to manufacture
P-2-P, the main precursor used in methamphetamine
manufacture in North America. 67
66 UNODC, responses to the annual report questionnaire.
67 E/INCB/2019/4.
40