CAUTION: ADVANCE TEXT SOC/NAR/570

Not for use before 9 a.m. 7 January

1991 Wednesday, 9 January

NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD SAYS DRUGS HAVE BECOME DIRECT THREAT

TO POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND ECONOMIES

INCB Report Calls for More Forceful, Comprehensive and

Innovative Action

VIENNA, 7 January (UN Information Service) -- Political

institutions and economies have become directly threatened by

illicit production, trafficking and abuse of drugs and especially

as a result of escalating drug-related violence, says the annual

1990 report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB),

to be released here on 9 January.

The INCB report*, in pointing to the direct threat, recalls

the murders of presidential candidates and singles out two

countries -- Colombia and Peru

-- where democratic institutions have been virtually under siege

as a result of the drug problem.

Trafficking organizations are not only well financed and

heavily armed but have also become more innovative and better

organized, states the report. They continue to forge links with

one another, often also with terrorist groups and a variety of

criminal organizations not only within countries and regions but

also interregionally. The Board cites information indicating that

during 1990, trafficking organizations in South America and

Western Europe may have been using each others' routes in a joint

venture to smuggle cocaine to Europe and heroin to North America.

Seizure data show that such linkages are also being established

between South-East Asian traffickers and criminal organizations

elsewhere. As the Board points out, the current abundant supply

of heroin makes this development particularly ominous.

* This year's report is dedicated to the memory of Professor

Paul Reuter in recognition of his 42 years of service with INCB

and its predecessor bodies. Professor Reuter died on 28 April

1990.

Traffickers continue to be flexible and innovative at all

steps of the drug chain, whether it is new ways of smuggling or

shifting production and manufacture to new countries, or coming up

with new forms of money laundering, the report goes on to say. As

their profits, or they themselves, especially through extradition,

become directly threatened, traffickers have demonstrated a

propensity to escalate violence. Because of these developments,

the Board reiterates that the response of the international

community to drug traffickers must be even more forceful, more

comprehensive and more innovative. It should also encompass

action against all elements of the drug chain.

The Board, calling for priority to be accorded to the

reduction and containment of the illicit demand for drugs, states

that demand is the most critical and intractable of the components

of the problem since it involves influencing and modifying human

behaviour.

The Board once again emphatically rejects the idea of

legalization of even some types of drugs, as such an approach

would send "a signal in the wrong direction". In this respect, the

Board recommends caution in assessing prophylactic measures, such

as the controlled distribution of hyperdemic needles and syringes

aimed at reducing the spread of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

(AIDS), warning that this should neither promote nor facilitate

drug abuse, even though, as the report notes, AIDS cases related

to intravenous drug abuse are becoming ever more numerous.

As concerns the other end of the drug chain, the supply side,

the Board calls on States to continue to accord priority to

control and reduction, stressing that "illicit cultivation should

not be permitted to expand further". The Board notes that States

concerned should have better access to modern technology to permit

the location and environmentally safe destruction of illicit

narcotic crops. The Board welcomes the convening in 1989, under

United Nations auspices, of two expert groups dealing with these

questions. The first group concluded that it would be feasible to

develop a system for space-borne remote sensing of illicit drug

crops cultivation; the other group considered environmentally safe

methods for eradicating illicit narcotic plants and recommended a

programme of continued research on the subject. The Board,

stressing that both groups dealt with "sensitive areas of

technical activity uniquely suitable for pursuit under

international aegis", recommends that the international community

provide the resources to continue those United Nations

programmes.

Also as regards the supply side, the Board calls for

provision of large-scale integrated rural development assistance

to enable cultivators of illicit crops to make their living

through licit agricultural or other enterprises and also for

establishing fair export prices for these alternate economic

activities.

The Board in its priority list accords increasing importance

to the exchange of information to facilitate the apprehension,

arrest and extradition of traffickers and to bring them to

justice; to denying traffickers opportunities to launder their

ill-gotten gains; and to preventing traffickers from acquiring

precursors, arms, sophisticated weaponry, aircraft, ships and the

like. The Board also calls on the international community to

provide, in response to States under attack by traffickers, full

assistance, including security devices, weapons, aircraft, ships

and training.

These priorities further underscore the need for enhanced and

comprehensive international co-operation and joint efforts. The

framework for such action already exists in the form of the

various drug Conventions. The Board notes that, generally

speaking, the international control system elaborated in the 1961

Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs continues to operate

satisfactorily. As for the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic

Substances, the Board believes the time may be ripe for parties to

consider initiating an amendment to extend mandatory export/import

authorization to more substances to prevent diversion from licit

trade to illicit channels.

Along with a number of regional initiatives -- such as the

co-operation of Nordic countries, or the Cartagena and Cochabamba

Declarations -- the Board welcomes the entry into force of the

1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic

Drugs and Psychotropic Substances as further evidence of

international determination.

Although the international framework for co-operation and

control exists and is, in fact, further strengthened by the new

initiatives, the Board regrets that some countries continue to

stay outside of this framework while others are not making full

use of its possibilities. All States are therefore urged to

adhere to the international treaties. The Board also calls on

those already parties to the Conventions to be more persistent and

forceful in implementing their provisions.

In this respect, the report calls for more timely and

comprehensive submission of statistical data, as well as the

strengthening of national monitoring and control mechanisms to

prevent diversion attempts and money laundering. As the Board

points out, "some countries are especially targeted by

traffickers, partly because control systems are known to be

weak".

World-wide Situation

In its region-by-region analysis, the report's findings

clearly indicate

that no region was able to isolate itself from the plague of

drug-related problems. Unfortunately, in spite of effective

measures taken in some areas, traffickers are able to pursue their

goals by flexibly shifting their operations, spreading their

activities to new geographic areas.

This is clearly the case in Central and South America where

cocaine production increased steadily, and coca bush cultivation

was extended to areas that were previously free of such

cultivation. The easy availability of drugs in South and Central

America not only constitutes a trafficking problem for the region,

but has recently led to growing domestic abuse. The existence of

guerrilla groups makes comprehensive action more difficult, as

these groups continue to provide protection to traffickers and

cultivators in exchange for arms and money. Traffickers, in

general, continue to expand their operations elsewhere in the

region as a result of stricter controls and intensified

enforcement actions in several countries, notably Colombia. Also,

as a result of stricter controls in the United States and its

southern neighbours, the use of Canada as a transit country has

increased.

In the case of Africa, the Board notes that "all countries of

the continent are now confronted, to one degree or another, with

drug trafficking and abuse". The situation in respect of cocaine

trafficking has worsened. One contributing reason for this was

the recent establishment of commercial air links with some African

countries. In general, the continent's drug-related problems stem

from prevailing economic and social conditions and attendant lack

of health care systems which not only help to facilitate

diversions but also lead to uncontrolled distribution of drugs,

including the wide availability of psychotropic substances. That

is why the Board calls for the strengthening of national control

systems and for more substantive and timely reporting on

drug-related statistical data.

The current political and economic changes in several Central

and Eastern European countries are resulting in a substantial

increase in the movement of people, goods, services and capital

within and outside Europe. This, as the Board points out, could

make States which have generally not yet experienced major

drug-related problems more vulnerable to abuse and illicit

traffic. The report says, for example, that traffickers in the

Soviet Union are becoming more organized. Therefore, the Board

welcomes the newly established participation of several States

from Central and Eastern Europe in the International Criminal

Police Organization (ICPO)-Interpol, their co-operation with the

Pompidou Group as well as their activities on the basis of

bilateral arrangements.

The Board warns that the implementation of legislation in

countries of the Americas restricting the availability of

precursors may well result in the establishment in Europe of more

clandestine laboratories for the conversion of coca paste.

Another development in this respect is the change in trafficking

routes in Europe; as a result of successful enforcement activities

in European airports, traffickers increasingly choose road

transportation. Particularly, with stepped up East-West trade,

traffic via the "Balkan route" has considerably increased its

share.

Internal political turmoil in some countries of Asia hinders

the establishment and effective functioning of control systems.

This, the Board notes, is clearly the case in countries such as

Afghanistan, Lebanon and Myanmar. Based on most recent data, the

Board estimates that illicit opium production in the region,

especially in the south-east, has remained around the same high

levels as in the previous growing season. Apart from continued

activity in "traditional" trafficking routes and areas, the Board

points to an increase in the movement of heroin from South-East

Asian countries across China's southern borders to Macao and Hong

Kong for both local consumption and onward transit. In fact, as

the Board notes, the scale of trafficking in the area implies the

involvement of major financiers. As positive developments, the

Board states that two of its missions, one to Pakistan and the

other to Iran (the latter being the first in many years), may

contribute to better co-operation in the sub-region.

Membership of INCB

In co-operation with Governments, the Board's task is to

limit the

cultivation, production, manufacture and use of drugs to an

adequate amount for medical and scientific purposes.

The 13 members of the Board serve in their personal capacity

as experts and do not represent their Governments. They are:

Sirad Atmodjo, of Indonesia; Valeri Bulaev, of the Soviet Union;

Zhi-Ji Cai, of China; Huascar Cajias Kauffmann, of Bolivia;

Abdullahi S. Elmi, of Somalia; Betty C. Gough, of the United

States; S. Oguz Kayaalp, of Turkey; Mohsen Kchouk, of Tunisia;

Mohamed Mansour, of Egypt; Jean-Pierre Queneudec, of France;

Maruthi Vasudev Narayan Rao, of India; Oskar Schroeder, of

Germany; and Tulio Velasquez-Quevedo, of Peru.

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