New York, April 13 -- The growing complexities of the world drug problem are hampering efforts to achieve sustainable development by the end of the decade: a situation which the COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Monday.

Ghada Waly was addressing the opening of the latest session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the agency's governing body, taking place this week in-person and online from Vienna.

"The pandemic has brought about changes in drug trafficking and the illicit drug market as a result of mobility restrictions and related measures. It has also increased vulnerabilities associated with negative coping mechanisms and risky behaviours", she told parti...