Isabella Purkart, Benedict Feichtner and Leonie Heitz report from Colombia, Belgium and France – on April 19th at 9:20 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – A controversial law came into force in Germany on April 1st that allows adults to possess and grow cannabis under certain conditions. Dealing remains a criminal offense. Almost 23 million people used marijuana in 2022, according to estimates from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. After cannabis, cocaine is one of the most commonly used drugs in Europe. And for some time now there has been more cocaine on the market than ever before. Europe is essentially being flooded. With an estimated prevalence of 6.2 percent among adults, Austria is even above the EU average. The ORF correspondent magazine “WeltWeit” traces the drug’s journey – from the producer to the dealer to the consumer. For the current issue on the topic “Drug Boom. Is Europe in a state of intoxication?” report on Friday, April 19, 2024, at 9:20 p.m. on ORF 2 Isabella Purkart, Benedict Feichtner and Leonie Heitz from Colombia, Belgium and France:
In Colombia, Isabella Purkart visits a farmer who illegally grows coca plants in the middle of the jungle. He processes his harvest into coca paste, which is later used to make cocaine. Farming is his only way to earn a living for himself and his family. He won’t get rich from it. Only the drug cartels to which he sells his coca paste make the big money, because cocaine is one of Colombia’s most important export goods. The trend is rising: According to a UN report, coca plants are grown on 230,000 hectares in the Latin American country – an area almost as large as Vorarlberg.
In Belgium, Benedict Feichtner follows the trail of international drug smugglers. The port city of Antwerp has developed into the most important transshipment point for cocaine in Europe in recent years. Year after year, new record amounts are confiscated: in 2023, so much cocaine was seized that the authorities could hardly keep up with burning it. Meanwhile, the drug traffickers tried to get the confiscated goods back. But, even if there are losses, the business is and remains lucrative. The violence associated with drug-related crime has now spread throughout the city.
In France, Leonie Heitz experiences how rival drug gangs fight for territory and customers and use firearms more and more frequently. Violence is escalating in the impoverished neighborhoods in the north of Marseille. Last year, the drug war claimed more victims than ever before, with 49 deaths and over 100 injuries. Increasingly, bystanders are also dying in the hail of bullets. Amine Kessaci, who lost his brother in this gang war, wants to lead his city out of its misery. The 20-year-old is running for the Greens in the European elections and is making drug crime a big issue. Something urgently needs to happen in Marseille because the police cannot get the violence under control.