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6 months ago
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A researcher says South Africa is not only a transit route for those trafficking synthetic drugs, it also has a robust consumer market. (Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
There has been a "global explosion" in the production, trafficking and use of synthetic drugs, according to an international report – and South Africa is at the geographic centre of this illicit economy.
The latest report by Jason Eligh, a researcher for the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), titled Global Synthetic Drug Markets: The Present and Future, maps out the global landscape of the trade in synthetic drugs.
Synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, mandrax and ecstasy are created in laboratories using chemicals – and the report illustrates how the illicit synthetic drug market has undergone a profound transformation in recent years.
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