Buoyed by increasing demand, global sales of illicit drugs are now worth about $322 billion, more than the individual economic output of almost 90 percent of the world’s countries, the United Nations said Wednesday in a report that put Asia at the forefront of the world trade in opium and amphetamines. Illegal drugs are used by about 200 million people worldwide and the number is still rising, although at a slower rate, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime said in its 2005 annual report. Full Story
