Tunis (© 2019 Afriquinfos) - West Africa is home to 56 percent of the African continent's drug addicts, although this sub-region contains only 30 percent of the continent's total population. The number of illicit drug users (cannabis, amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, etc.) in this area reached 5.7 million people in 2018, compared to 1.6 million in 1990. Worse still, it should reach 13 million people in 2050.

Cannabis remains by far the most commonly used drug by West Africans, followed by pharmaceutical opioids. All these data were revealed in a study entitled “Drug Demand and Use in Africa”, published, in September 2019, by the “ENACT” Project (Enhancing Africa's Response Capacities to Transnational Organized Crime).

Funded by the European Union (EU), this project is implemented within the framework of a partnership between INTERPOL and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), in collaboration with the “Global initiative against transnational organized crime". According to the same study, “Africa's share in world consumption should double between 2015 and 2050. Thus, it will become the most important continent for the world drug trade”.

Indeed, with its 1.3 billion inhabitants, Africa is the second most populated continent on the planet behind Asia. Its population is expected to reach 2.5 billion in 2050 given its population growth, "the strongest" in the world, according to the UN. Given this growth, Africa is expected to experience a “much greater” increase in the absolute number of drug users, compared to other regions of the world, the ENACT study predicted.

In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the number of drug users is expected to increase by nearly 150 percent in the next three decades, it has been estimated. The rate of illicit drug use in sub-Saharan Africa is 1.6 percent in 2018 (compared to 1.8 percent in Europe and Central Asia), it was recalled. This rate is “higher” than the average recorded in the MENA, Latin America, Caribbean, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific regions.

West Africa is expected to experience "the highest demand" for drugs and become "the largest drug market" in the African continent. “The amount of non-medical prescription amphetamines, cocaine, opiates and opioids demanded by West Africans is expected to more than double, by 2050, from approximately 185 metric tons, in 2018, to 430 metric tons”.

The sub-region is on the way to becoming not only a market for drug consumption, but also a hub for drug trafficking of all kinds, especially towards Europe.

Rapid population growth in West Africa is among the causes of the “rising demand” for illicit drugs, according to the ENACT study. Between 1990 and 2018, the population of the sub-region more than doubled, from nearly 180 million people to nearly 380 million. It is expected to reach around 775 million people in 2050, half of whom will be under the age of 24.

"In general, young people are more likely to use drugs than older people." In addition, globalization, organized crime, rapid urbanization, unemployment, poverty, weak state and family institutions, and corruption are other factors contributing to drug prevalence. Poverty is a risk factor for the consumption of inexpensive drugs (opiates, opioids, tramadol, etc.).

West Africa has the second highest rate of extreme poverty in Africa (about 44 percent in 2018), second only to Central Africa (about 57 percent in 2018). "Injectable" drugs are a "threat to public health". These drugs could increase the risk of a new outbreak of HIV, hepatitis C and other "expensive" diseases. Between 1 and 2 million drug users in West Africa are at risk of suffering from drug use disorders.