*EPF412 02/24/00
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)
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