Western African syndicates, with their experience in smuggling cannabis and heroin, are actively looking for new connections in Latin America and are bringing cocaine trafficking to all parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the report said. They are also using a growing number of nationals of different African countries as drug couriers and smugglers. Drug traffickers continue to take advantage of the location of Central America and the Caribbean between the major producing and consuming countries, and the region's hundreds of small islands and myriad of cays. In the Caribbean, airdropping drug consignments into coastal waters and then having them picked up by speedboat has become a common practice. Because of the increased efforts by authorities in some countries, traffickers have been quickly moving their operations to weaker jurisdictions and regularly stockpiling drugs in isolated locations.
Cannabis remains the most common drug abused in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
In the United States, while the overall level of cocaine abuse has remained unchanged, the rate of abuse among adolescents dropped by 14 percent from 1998 to 1999, the report said. The board attributes the drop to measures taken to educate people about the harmful consequences of drug abuse. Overall, heroin abuse has declined as well. South America is still the sole source of illicit cocaine hydrochloride. Despite significant reduction in the extent of coca bush cultivation in Bolivia and Peru in recent years, the overall capacity of the region to manufacture cocaine hydrochloride does not seem to have been significantly reduced, the report said.