Narcotics Board Warns of Growing Illicit Drug Use

(Annual report of International Narcotics Control Board) (2250)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The use of cannabis is being abused by larger groups
around the world, fueled by easy availability of very potent
varieties, including varieties grown indoors, and by sales of seeds
and paraphernalia over the Internet, according to the 1999 annual
report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

The wide-ranging 73-page report, released February 23, (available at
www.incb.org/e/ind_ar.htm) details national and international drug
control issues, from the lack of painkillers for cancer patients in
developing countries to cocaine trafficking.

The INCB, which is affiliated with the United Nations International
Drug Control Program, calls the increasing abuse of cannabis among the
young an especially alarming development.

The board is keen to correct the image of cannabis as a "harmless"
drug, the report says. Calling for scientific, not anecdotal, evidence
of cannabis's medical benefits, the board says that if it were proven
to be medically useful, cannabis would be treated in the same way as
other drugs such as morphine, with its medical use strictly supervised
by medical authorities.

The INCB cited the Internet as an increasing problem in drug control,
saying that it is concerned that both cannabis seeds and paraphernalia
for growing potent varieties of the drug indoors are being sold on Web
sites.

There are many Web sites based in European countries, particularly in
the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, offering to sell and deliver
quickly potent varieties of cannabis to almost any destination in the
world, the board says.

"As a means of communication, the Internet is a boon to humanity,"
Herbert Okun, the U.S. representative to the INCB said. "However, it
can also be misused -- in this case as a recipe book for illicit drug
production. There is a need for governments to take vigorous action to
counter this trend."

In each yearly report the INCB focuses on a different area of concern.
The 1999 report highlights the need to ensure an adequate supply of
legal narcotic drugs for medical purposes, especially in developing
countries, Okun said at a press conference at U.N. headquarters.

"The board chose to return to its original function ... to provide for
an adequate amount of drugs for medical and scientific purposes and to
ensure their availability for such purposes. And we have launched a
campaign we call 'freedom from pain,'" he said.

"The sad reality is that people all over the world are suffering from
the lack of adequate supply of drugs, particularly morphine and the
opiates for cancer-related pain and other kinds of pain. The
statistics are truly horrific," Okun said.

Morphine and other opiates used to alleviate severe pain are often not
available or are in short supply in hospitals in many countries, the
report says. The level of usage in the 20 most developed countries is
93 times higher than in the poorest countries.

According to the World Health Organization, by 2015 two-thirds of the
15 million new cancer cases will occur in developing countries,
precisely those countries which do not have an adequate supply of
pain-easing drugs, Okun said.

"The board feels it is its duty to call this to the attention of
governments and practitioners because as we sit here in comfort
thousands upon thousands of people are suffering terrible pain all of
which is relievable," Okun said.

In the 1999 report the INCB stresses that it is mainly the
responsibility of concerned governments and the medical profession to
improve the situation. "The board urges government worldwide to ensure
that narcotic drugs are available so that patients do not suffer
unnecessarily," the report says.

All countries should aim at maintaining or establishing a
well-functioning drug supply management system that ensures safe
delivery of affordable drugs to patients who need them and prevents
those drugs from ending up in illicit channels, it says.

In a review of trends around the world, the report says that wars are
increasing drug trafficking and abuse in Africa, particularly among
children and youth.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia, for example,
child combatants were provided with drugs to induce them to carry out
dangerous operations, it says. The INCB also believes that illicit
drugs were used to finance the civil wars and buy arms in Angola and
Rwanda.

Western and Southern Africa have become not only important
transshipment points for traffickers but also areas of increasing
local consumption of cocaine and heroin, according to the report. The
board also fears that rising unemployment in Africa is likely to fuel
an expansion of the cultivation and distribution of cannabis to
generate income.

The report also touched on the relationship between drugs and the high
rate of HIV/AIDS infections in Africa.

While the leading cause of HIV transmission is unprotected sex, often
in combination with alcohol or drug abuse, "there are suggestions that
the increasing prevalence of the injection of heroin and other
substances in some capital cities and tourist destinations in Africa
may exacerbate the situation," it says.

"Orphans and street children, whose numbers are increasing, are more
vulnerable to illicit drug trafficking activities and/or substance
abuse," the report says.

Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius and Tanzania are trafficking centers for
heroin from Southwest and Southeast Asia to Europe, North America, and
South Africa, the report says, adding that drug abuse appears to be
increasing in countries along the trafficking routes.

Cocaine seizures have remained low in Africa, the report says, but
trafficking in and abuse of the drug have been increasing. In South
Africa, for example, there has been an increase in trafficking and
abuse of "crack" and cocaine and Cape Verde is witnessing increasing
abuse as a spill-over effect of the trafficking.

While the main drug being trafficked and abused in Africa is cannabis
and to some extent methaqualone, the U.N. Drug Control and Crime
Prevention office has predicted that this is likely to change, with
other drugs -- most notably cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines --
becoming increasingly popular among drug abusers and traffickers.

But the board also says that as a result of increased law enforcement
efforts and overall improved management of government institutions,
drug traffickers are making less use of Nigeria as a transit point. As
a result of Nigeria's actions "more drug trafficking groups have begun
using other countries in Africa as transit countries for shipments to
Europe and North America," the report says.

There has been a sharp increase in seizures of psychotropic substances
in Nigeria since 1994, the report says. Narcotics seizures there have
been greater than in any other county in Africa. More depressants were
seized in Nigeria than in any other country in the world, it says.

In the Americas, the Board lauded the cooperative efforts that emerged
from the 1994 Summit of the Americas, singling out work on precursor
control, justice study centers, money-laundering controls, and
establishing a means to evaluate anti-drug efforts in individual
countries.

Nevertheless, the board says that it is concerned about the
"increasingly liberal approach of some governments in Central American
and the Caribbean to offshore banking and gambling industries in view
of their potential for abuse" by money-launderers. And it warned that
the proposed stock exchange for the Eastern Caribbean could present
opportunities for money-laundering as well.

Cocaine seizures have remained constant for the Central
American/Caribbean region as a whole, but Haiti has emerged as the
main transit point for smuggling cocaine from Colombia through the
region into the United States, the report says.

"Drug traffickers are taking advantage of the economic and political
crisis in Haiti, which has paralyzed most efforts to intercept illicit
drug consignments," the report says.

Mexico is still a key supplier of cannabis, as well as a major transit
point for cocaine, to the United States, the report says. But it says
that Mexico has boosted its drug control efforts, and drug trafficking
groups may be shifting their operations to other Latin American
countries and the Caribbean.

In South America, the board says, the exceptional coca bush
eradication efforts by Bolivia and Peru seem to have been offset by
increased coca leaf production in Colombia. The Board says that data
indicates that there is more land under coca bush cultivation in
Colombia than in Bolivia and Peru combined.

Colombia continues to be the world's leading cocaine producer,
according to the report. Colombian law enforcement forces destroyed
one laboratory capable of manufacturing up to eight tons of cocaine
per month, an indication of the technical and economic resources at
the disposal of Colombian traffickers, the INCB report says.

The deterioration of public safety in general in Colombia, and the
fact that substantial illicit coca leaf production and cocaine
manufacture are taking place in areas beyond government control are
hampering efforts by the government to fight illicit cultivation,
production, and trafficking, the report says.

In Peru, opium poppy seed and opium seizures increased significantly
in 1999, perhaps indicating that the country will be increasingly
faced with the problem of opium poppy cultivation, according to the
board.

In 1999, there was a major reduction of opium poppy growing areas in
Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, the report says. China, Malaysia
and Thailand remain important illicit markets for heroin and serve as
transit points for heroin for markets in other parts of East and
Southeast Asia, North America and Oceania.

The abuse of and trafficking in amphetamine-type stimulants are
spreading quickly across East and Southeast Asia. The report says that
in the Golden Triangle area, facilities that once were used
exclusively for refining heroin are increasingly being used to
manufacture methamphetamine as well.

China also remains a major source of clandestinely manufactured
amphetamine-type stimulants, it says.

In South Asia, there has been a rise in drug abuse in the countries
used as trafficking transit points, the INCB says. While cannabis and
opium have been the main drugs of abuse, use of heroin and synthetic
drugs is increasing rapidly.

Certain areas in Bangladesh, Northeastern India, and the Indo-Pakistan
border also are said to be emerging as major drug trafficking centers.

Despite regular cannabis eradication campaigns in Nepal, India, and
Sri Lanka, illicit cultivation has continued. The demand for cannabis
resin from Nepal has increased, in turn leading to a sharp increase in
cultivation, according to the report.

Record opium poppy harvests in Afghanistan are expected to increase
the supply of opiates from Southwest Asia, the report says. The board
estimates that due to favorable weather, 1999 opium production
increased to a record level of about 4,600 tons. "Thus it is likely
that approximately 75 percent of the world production of opium takes
place in Afghanistan," it says.

"The commitment of the Taliban in Afghanistan to ban opium poppy
cultivation and heroin manufacture remains questionable as it
continues to collect taxes on the opium poppy crops that are harvested
and the heroin that is manufactured," the board says. According to a
recent survey, 87 percent of Afghanistan's opium poppy crops were on
Taliban-controlled territory, according to the report.

Heroin manufacture, the report says, has "virtually disappeared' from
Pakistan, moving to Afghanistan.

"The board is concerned about this grave situation, which negatively
affects not only West Asia but also Europe and the rest of the world,"
the report says. "It urges the world community to take appropriate
measures."

The board is also concerned about the rapid spread of illicit
cultivation, trafficking and abuse in the central Asian countries of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan and
the Caucasus.

Kazakhstan has the largest single area of wild cannabis growth in the
world -- about 3000,000 hectares -- and it could develop into a
significant source of illicitly trafficked cannabis, the report warns.

In view of the overall rise in criminal activities in central Asia and
the Caucasus and inadequate government resources, if drug abuse and
trafficking are left unchecked, the report warns, they will have
"devastating consequences" for societies in those regions.

The report says the Caspian Sea is increasingly being used to
transship large amounts of both opiates and cannabis from Afghanistan
through Turkmenistan to Russia and other European countries.

West Asia offers many possibilities for money-laundering, according to
the report. It says that many countries in the region have not yet
enacted legislation to identify and counter such activities, and in
addition controls over pharmaceutical narcotic drugs and psychotropic
substances in many countries appear to be weak.

Trafficking in opiates in Afghanistan, Pakistan and even CIS member
states continued to be organized by multinational trafficking groups
based in Pakistan, according to the report.

"There is now substantial evidence that countries in central Asia are
being used as transit points to transport from East to West illicit
consignments of opiates and cannabis originating in Afghanistan and
that chemicals used for the illicit manufacture of heroin are being
transported in the opposite direction," it says.

"Drug traffickers have taken advantage of the absence of controls on
the borders between CIS member states and transportation links
established in West Asia," the board reports. "Heroin with a high
purity level, smuggled via central Asian countries and the Russian
Federation, has been introduced on the illicit market in a number of
European countries."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
usinfo.state.gov)