"Despite a 19 per cent decline in the quantity of opiates seized globally from 2017 to 2018 (calculated on the basis of converting those seizures into heroin equivalents), dropping to 210 tons, that was still the third highest amount ever reported and continued to exceed the quantity of pharmaceutical opioids seized.² The overall decline in the quantity of opiates seized in 2018 was mostly due to a decrease by half in the quantity of morphine seized.

Misleading Official Statistics on Interdiction and Seizures: "Comparing absolute numbers of total cocaine seizures and manufacture could be misleading. To understand the relationship between the amount of annual seizures reported by States (694 tons cocaine of unknown purity in 2010) and the estimated level of manufacture (788-1,060 tons of cocaine of 100 per cent purity), it would be necessary to take into account several factors, and the associated calculations would depend on a level of detail in seizure data that is often unavailable.

"In North America, the quantities of cocaine seized rose by 10 per cent in 2018. The United States continued to account for the largest quantity of cocaine seized (19 per cent of the global total). In Central America, the largest quantities seized were reported by Panama (4 per cent) and Costa Rica (2 per cent). Seizures reported by countries in the Caribbean, by contrast, accounted for just 1 per cent of the total global quantity of cocaine intercepted, mostly reflecting seizures made by the Dominican Republic.

"The total quantity of heroin seized globally reached a record high in 2016, while the quantities of opium and morphine seized reached the second highest level ever reported. The largest quantities of opiates seized were of opium (658 tons), followed by seizures of heroin (91 tons) and morphine (65 tons). Overall seizures of opiates, expressed in heroin equivalents, increased by almost 50 per cent from 2015 to 2016, of which the quantity of heroin seized exceeded that of opium and morphine.