On June 26, the entire world community celebrates a significant event - International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

This day was proclaimed on December 7, 1987 by the UN General Assembly as a sign of its determination to strengthen activities and cooperation to create a world society free from drug abuse. The decision was taken on the basis of the International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking recommendation, which adopted a comprehensive multidisciplinary action plan to combat drug abuse.

Drug addiction and related crime has affected all countries of the world. According to the roughest estimates of experts, from 3 to 4 percent of the world's inhabitants use drugs. These are mainly young people aged 18 to 30, every fifth of them is a woman. Considering that about 5-10% of the total number of really existing drug addicts are registered in drug treatment institutions, it is with great concern that one can imagine the underwater part of this iceberg!

Unfortunately, the situation with the distribution of drugs in the world continues to deteriorate. The schemes of their production and sale, transport and financial networks of drug trafficking are improving, the speed and scale are constantly growing. The structure of drug consumption is also changing - new synthetic drugs appear, their formulas are constantly being updated. National laws often fail to respond to these changes.

Therefore, the problem of drug addiction is a global threat to the health of the world's population. After all, this is not only the tragedy of an individual or a family. This is also one of the reasons for the demographic crisis, the birth of sick children, the decline in the general health of the nation, as well as the increase in the crime rate around the world.

The global quarantine due to the coronavirus has disrupted the drug trade, however, temporary relief is fraught with problems in the near future, when the drug traffic recovers.

“The current crisis will potentially worsen the situation of vulnerable groups. People will increasingly take illegal work to compensate for the loss of legitimate income. introduced by the authorities to combat COVID-19 will inevitably affect all aspects of drug trafficking. "

In many countries in all parts of the world, the UN has noted a shortage of entire classes of drugs, rising prices, declining quality and the transition of consumers to synthetic drugs or substitution therapy.

In the short term, instability in the drug market could lead to an increase in dangerous drug use and new strategies for drug trafficking groups to overcome the obstacles that have arisen. Drug users are expected to increasingly use the darknet to overcome the effects of personal control, and mail-order drug delivery is expected to become even more popular. Web and dark net markets, social media and secure encrypted communication applications will play a more prominent role in drug users' search for drugs. For individual transactions, home delivery will be popularized, the number of personal transactions and dependence on cash as a form of payment will decrease significantly, and it is possible that such behavioral changes will persist for a long period of time. It is quite obvious that all the innovations of the drug mafia will remain, because they are much more convenient for doing business.

No one can say with certainty about the end of the coronavirus pandemic. And therefore, in the fight against drug addiction and drug trafficking, we must be prepared for the following development of events:

- with the opening of state borders, drug traffic is likely to increase;

- the main channel for the sale of drugs will remain the darknet, which will tend to increase;

- due to the growth of unemployment and lack of opportunities, the chances of poor and disadvantaged people will increase who will turn to illegal activities related to the production or transportation of drugs, thereby increasing the number of drug addicts in the world;

Unfortunately, it is impossible to liquidate the drug mafia. But it is possible to restrict her activities. What should we react to and how? The operational environment of the so-called "new normalcy", although full of challenges for law enforcement agencies, provides an opportunity to intensify investigations of dangerous organized crimes. The task of all law enforcement agencies is not to reduce the activity in the development of high-risk organized crime groups and their leaders, who are engaged in large-scale production and trafficking of drugs.

The Central Asian Regional Information Coordination Center for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Their Precursors (hereinafter - CARICC / Center), as a specialized international organization, exercises its powers to the extent that the Center was endowed with them by the participating States in the statutory documents gives this opportunity.

Since the establishment of CARICC, as an interstate body for coordinating the efforts of the competent authorities of the participating States in combating transnational drug-related crime, it will be 14 years. During this period, a lot has been done within the framework of its mandate, but more remains to be done.

The format of CARICC's international activities is very wide. The Center is a permanent organizer, coordinator and participant of such operations as "Reflex", "Substitution", "Channel" and "Web". The coordination headquarters of which are being created on the basis of CARICC.

The use of its own and international information resources enables the Center to be an effective instrument of inter-network cooperation in the international fight against drugs. For the collection, processing and analysis of information in the field of illegal drug trafficking, CARICC has created a Centralized Data Bank, which currently has more than 100 thousand objects.

The center carries out a strategic and operational analysis of the drug situation in the region, conducts a number of studies, prepares and distributes regular analytical products. The total number of published bulletins, overviews and newsletters has already exceeded 1000 issues. The number of addressees receiving them is also increasing.

Various events are held at the Center's sites, bilateral and multilateral meetings are held to exchange information and coordinate joint operational investigative actions between the CARICC member states and the Center's partners.

Also, the activation of interaction is facilitated by the annual working meetings of the liaison officers of the CARICC member states, observer states and partners of the Center.

CARICC - as an international organization, together with the UNODC, other international organizations and partners, as well as the competent authorities of the participating States and law enforcement agencies of other countries will continue to intensify offensive activities on drug addiction and drug trafficking - a regional and global threat. The future of the whole world and mankind depends on this.