UN Office on Drugs and Crime: “Illicit drug markets have global dimensions and require coordinated responses on a comparable scale. In this context, the World Drug Report 2012 aims to improve understanding of the illicit drug problem and contribute to more international cooperation for countering it. This year’s edition begins with an overview of recent trends and the current situation in terms of production, trafficking and consumption and the consequences of illicit drug use in terms of treatment, drug-related diseases and drug-related deaths. The second chapter presents a long-term perspective: it looks at the main characteristics of the contemporary drug problem, the ways it has changed over the last few decades, the driving factors that shaped this evolution, and the directions it is likely to take in the future.”