The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime today released its first-ever Global Report on Cocaine, noting that the global supply of cocaine has reached record levels, with coca cultivation soaring 35 per cent from 2020 to 2021. Demand for cocaine has also swelled with many regions showing a steady rise in cocaine users.

In Vienna, Jagjit Pavadia, President of the International Narcotics Control Board launched its Annual Report for 2022, which focuses on the trend towards legalizing the non-medical use of cannabis and analyses the various policy approaches from the perspective of the drug control conventions.

In the Central African Republic, the United Nations peacekeeping mission there began an electoral awareness campaign in Obo and in Bria to encourage strong participation in the local elections.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today released its newest survey on opium cultivation. The agency estimates that poppy cultivation in Myanmar has increased by 33 per cent in the first season since the military takeover.

The United Nations Environment Programme today announced its 2022 Champions of the Earth, honouring a conservationist, an enterprise, an economist, a women’s rights activist and a wildlife biologist for their transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.

The United Nations Secretariat at the Joint Coordination Centre reports that the Ukrainian, Turkish and United Nations delegations agreed not to plan any movement of vessels in the Black Sea Grain Initiative for 2 November.

In Tunisia, the third of nine commercial vessels from Ukraine arrived over the weekend, through the Black Sea Grain Initiative, bringing more than 78,000 tons of soft wheat to the country. A fourth vessel is scheduled to land today in Tunis, with 30,000 tons of corn.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations today addressed the 2022 Ocean Conference opening ceremony, along with the leaders of the two co-hosting nations, Portugal and Kenya, warning that the world’s failure to care for the ocean will have ripple effects across the entire 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed on 26 June:

Jayathma Wickramanayake, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, and The Body Shop, launched a campaign today that seeks to get young voices into the halls of power.  The campaign, “Be Seen, Be Heard”, seeks to create long-term structural changes that will make decision-making more inclusive of young people and ensure their participation in political life.