COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS TO HOLD THIRTY-NINTH SESSION IN VIENNA, 16-25 APRIL
Press Release
SOC/NAR/722
COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS TO HOLD THIRTY-NINTH SESSION IN VIENNA, 16-25 APRIL
19960416 Background Release Issues Include How to Reduce Narcotic Crops and Demand for Drugs, Combat Spread of Amphetamine-type Stimulants, Strengthen Current Strategy(Reproduced as received from the UN Information Service.)
VIENNA, 15 April -- The illicit manufacture, traffic and abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants could well constitute the key drug-related problem of the future, according to one of several reports to be discussed by the United Nations principal policy-making body on drug control -- the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, during its forthcoming session which begins here tomorrow, 16 April, and ends on 25 April.
The report points to recent evidence that particularly the availability, price, consumer preference and reduced risk of interdiction may give synthetic drugs the potential to become a global problem of a magnitude greater than that posed by the plant-based narcotics. The report is based on a study prepared by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) entitled "Amphetamine-type stimulants: a global review".
The Commission, which will examine areas of progress and weakness in the implementation of existing drug control measures, has been called upon by the General Assembly to recommend appropriate adjustments of drug control activities where required. Among the specific questions on which the Commission may wish to make recommendations are strengthening cooperation on alternative development as a means of eliminating illicit drug trafficking, harmonizing national laws and regulations, implementing all provisions of the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, promoting the training of drug control personnel and encouraging the involvement of non-governmental organizations and the private sector in drug abuse prevention efforts.
Other issues which the Commission has been asked to consider are how to strengthen the fight against international criminal drug organizations, penalties to apply for drug trafficking-related offences such as money laundering and illegal arms trade, how to enforce controls of precursors and
essential chemicals used in making illicit drugs, how to strengthen cooperation to eradicate the growing and dangerous links between terrorist groups, drug traffickers and their paramilitary gangs and ways to reinforce preventive strategies.
The 53-member Commission, which oversees the work of the UNDCP, will review during its forthcoming session an assessment of the status of international cooperation in drug control, which has been proposed by the Economic and Social Council as the theme for its high-level segment this year. In connection with the issue, the Commission will have before it a report by the Executive Director in which he further elaborates and refines recommendations submitted last year, on the basis of additional information from governments.
The Commission has also been asked to give priority consideration on whether to convene an international conference on the question, taking into account international drug control priorities and resources, the financial and other implications of holding such a conference and ways and means to increase the implementation of existing international conventions and other instruments for cooperation on drug control.
As it began to do last session, the Commission will again consider matters relating to demand reduction as a separate agenda item, under which it will discuss basic principles of drug abuse prevention and experience gained from a series of regional expert forums on demand reduction. It will also look at the world drug abuse situation. Reports on those subjects will be available along with a report on the UNDCP strategy for demand reduction and on a draft declaration on the guiding principles of demand reduction.
In connection with drug traffic and supply, the Secretariat has prepared a report on the world-wide situation with regard to illicit drug trafficking and a note on the activities of the Commission's subsidiary bodies. According to one report before the Commission under this question, the global interdiction rate for cocaine is now significantly above that for heroin, reversing the pattern of the early 1980s -- a development almost certainly due to greater law enforcement efforts. The report cautions, however, that the mechanisms of the illicit market are such that the impact upon the amount of cocaine reaching consumers is less significant.
Assembly's Mandate
The General Assembly in 1993 adopted a resolution renewing its commitment to strengthening cooperation against the global drug problem, in which it called upon the Commission, with the support of the UNDCP and the cooperation of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), to monitor and evaluate action on the national and international levels to implement
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international drug control treaties, with a view to identifying areas of satisfactory progress and weakness and to recommend appropriate adjustments.
In that connection, the Executive Director convened two sessions of an ad hoc advisory group at Vienna in 1994 and submitted his recommendations to the Commission last year. That report had also reflected the deliberations of the Commission's subsidiary bodies; the International Conference on Preventing and Controlling Money Laundering and the Use of the Proceeds of Crime, which was held in Courmayeur, Italy, from 18 to 20 June 1994; the World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational Crime; and the Summit of the Americas, held in Miami, United States, on 11 December 1994.
In addition to the mandate given to it by the Commission, the advisory group commented on three additional issues: money laundering, the debate concerning the possible legalization of the non-medical use of drugs and a proposal to hold a second international conference on drug abuse and illicit trafficking.
The present report reflects comments and additional information provided to the UNDCP Executive Director by Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, South Africa and United Kingdom with regard to the recommendations he submitted last year. Among the proposals addressed concerned the functioning of the international drug control treaties, whether to hold a second international conference on drug abuse and illicit trafficking, implications of decriminalization and harm reduction policies, and funding of UNDCP activities.
Activities of UN Drug Control Programme
The UNDCP was created by the Assembly in 1990 to coordinate all United Nations drug control activities and providing effective leadership in international drug control. As one of its main topics of discussion, the Commission will review the work of the UNDCP in 1995, on the basis of a report by the Executive Director of the Programme and other background documents.
The Executive Director's report covers activities of the UNDCP at the national, regional and international levels. It states that the Programme has sought, through a balanced approach targeting both illicit traffic and demand, directly to support government efforts to combat the drugs problem, with emphasis on assisting countries in drawing up and carrying out national drug-control master plans and to strengthening the national institutions involved. The report states that by implementing a package of targeted technical cooperation programmes last year, the Programme promoted close cooperation between governments at the subregional level, particularly in order to counter cross-border trafficking. Subregional cooperation was one of the successful strategic initiatives.
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With regard to the Programme's financial status, voluntary contributions from donor countries to the Fund of the UNDCP increased significantly last year, compared with 1993 and 1994, to reach $64 million. The long-term financial situation of the Programme remains, however, a matter of concern, according to the report. Current estimates show that the existing fund balances will be significantly depleted during the 1996-1997 biennium because expenditures continue to exceed income during the 1994-1995 and 1996-1997 bienniums, which will leave the fund's balance at $16 million by the end of 1997.
With the coming depletion of the fund and a decline in general-purpose funds -- which support the Programme's core activities -- the UNDCP is concerned that, unless current trends are reversed, it will not have sufficient resources to cover the basic needs of headquarters and the infrastructure costs for its field operations.
Another concern is the apparent imbalance between the Programme's mandates and the resources available to implement them. Contrary to a growing spirit of collective responsibility for international drug control, some States remain, exclusively, recipients of UNDCP cooperation, while a handful of others bear the brunt of the financial burden. In order for the Commission to fulfil its mandate as governing body of the UNDCP, it should explore ways of encouraging States and other partners to consider themselves "shareholders" in the Programme.
The report recommends that increased consideration should be given to the idea of assessed contributions, even if based on the short-term commitment of as many countries as possible. It suggests that in additional to current contributions, about 50 countries might be enlisted to donate about $300,000 each for core activities. The resulting $15 million would provide a cushion of certainty to further strengthen the Programme's capabilities. In light of requests for innovative fund-raising approaches, the UNDCP last year worked to mobilize consortia to secure longer-range commitment of donors to specific programmes or thematic areas and continued to encourage countries receiving technical assistance to assume an increasing share of the financial burden.
Stimulant Study
In connection with amphetamine-type stimulants, the Commission has before it a report which outlines the actions undertaken thus far by the UNDCP -- which was last year asked by the Economic and Social Council to convene expert meetings of regulatory and law enforcement authorities of interested governments in order to discuss how to combat illicit manufacture of such stimulants and the illicit use of their precursors.
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The report outlines the findings of a study which had been prepared by the UNDCP in consultation with the INCB for the first of the expert meetings -- held in February in Vienna -- at which 52 experts from some 26 countries and four organizations sought to identify the scope, nature and magnitude of the global stimulants problem. A second meeting, to be held later this year, will seek to recommend the necessary corrective responses.
The study cited in the report examines the licit use of amphetamine-type stimulants as well as the developments that have led to their spread into the illicit market. One of the principal findings of the global review, confirmed in the expert report, is that the control system works well on the licit side of the picture, but on the illicit side it is far more limited, considering that the growth rate of the amphetamine-type stimulants over the past five years has surpassed the rates for cocaine and heroin.
Such stimulants, the report states, provide the best historical evidence of the "balloon effect". In the case of plant-based narcotics, the cultivation and processing operations move from one geographical location to another to escape law enforcement. With synthetic drugs, restricting the licit supply in a market with constant demand merely leads to a shifting from licit to illicit manufacture, initially within the same country.
Among the salient points which emerged at the February meeting is that in those countries being drawn into the global market, the principal limitation is a continuing emphasis on fighting plant-based narcotic drugs. While perfectly valid, that approach leaves little attention being given to synthetic drugs. The report stresses that more common ground has to be found in terms of both national compliance with existing regulations and the cooperation of industry.
Crop Reduction
The Commission has before it a detailed report on illicit crops from which drugs are extracted and appropriate strategies for their reduction, which examines national and global eradication efforts and their impact on illicit cultivation. It also looks at the distinction between alternative development, on the one hand, and both crop substitution and more general economic development efforts on the other.
The report states that over the last two decades, alternative development work in 11 countries by the UNDCP and its predecessors has led to an accumulation of relevant experience which is suitable for review. It outlines trends in hectarage of global illicit cultivation as well as strategies to reduce it. Also provided are a number of figures and tables, including a table of eradication estimates for 14 countries in 1993 and 1994.
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The last two decades have seen significant progress in developing an understanding of the dynamics of illicit crop cultivation and related drug control strategies, the report states. Experience has shown that some programmes have been effective in encouraging the growth of licit agricultural and other economic activities, while reducing the level of illicit cultivation in targeted areas.
Demand Reduction
In discussing the question of demand reduction, the Commission will have five reports.
One, concerning the state of knowledge in "primary" and "secondary" prevention, reviews the evidence available regarding those approaches to drug abuse prevention. Primary prevention includes public awareness campaigns, perinatal and pre-school interventions, in-school education, youth programmes and drug testing. Secondary prevention consists of reducing drug abuse through different forms of treatment and rehabilitation. The report states that evidence suggests that the efficacy of primary prevention is increasingly being called into question, while secondary prevention seems to be able to reduce demand, and result in abstinence, under some conditions. Although they have a high relapse rate, secondary prevention strategies have been shown by some studies to be cost-effective.
A second report presents an overview of the experience gained from a series of UNDCP-organized regional expert forums on demand reduction. These took place over the past three years in Nairobi, Sao Paulo, Hanoi, Nassau, Yaounde and New Delhi. They provided an overview of the drug situation in the several subregions, as well as of existing demand reduction programmes and of the resources needed to carry them out.
Emphasis was placed on the lack of reliable data on the nature and extent of drug abuse and on various drug abuse programmes. It was felt that treatment services should be designed for, and made more accessible to, persons in need of such services. The increasing social problems in all regions made the targeting of at-risk groups an important issue of any demand reduction programme.
A further report provides data on the world drug abuse situation, including a number of graphs and tables. Most of the drug-related concerns emerging from the reports involve an almost continuous rise in drug abuse, its effect on prison and criminal justice systems, the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) as a result of abusing drugs by injection and the enormous human and financial costs resulting from drug abuse and the treatment of drug abusers. One growing problem in a number of countries is that the volume of people arrested
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for drug-related offences is overloading criminal justice systems, resulting in serious delays in the processing of all types of cases. Another problem is the extent to which drugs are being abused inside prisons.
The UNDCP's strategy for drug demand reduction is spelled out in another report of the Executive Director, who has identified three main objectives in that regard: to provide governments with relevant information for use in formulating drug-control policy; to identify effective methodologies and programmes for demand reduction in different socio-economic and cultural contexts; and to increase the effectiveness of measures undertaken at the national level. Implementation strategies are described for each objective.
Also before the Commission will be a note containing a compilation of comments and proposals from governments and organizations for use in formulating a draft declaration on the "guiding principles of reduction of illicit demand for drugs".
Illicit Drug Trafficking
On the subject of illicit drug trafficking, the Commission has before it a report covering recent global trends in that area, in addition to a note on the work of the Commission's subsidiary bodies over the past year.
The report on illicit trafficking outlines global trends in illicit drug trafficking from 1980 to 1994, illustrated with a number of graphs. It notes that the dynamics of trafficking are such that even a one-third seizure rate does not cause a proportional reduction in consumption. Further investigation of issues relating to the interception of illicit drugs and the role it plays in reducing consumption and other drug-related problems may assist the Commission in its efforts to monitor adherence to the relevant provisions of the drug control treaties.
The report on the activities of the subsidiary bodies covers meetings which have been held over the past year by the Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (HONLEA) for Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The latter also covered Canada and the United States. The meetings took place in Kampala, Jakarta and Havana, respectively. In view of measures necessitated by the financial crisis of the United Nations, the meeting of the Subcommission on Illicit Drug Traffic and Related Matters in the Near and Middle East was postponed from 18 to 22 November 1995 to 9 to 13 March 1996. The HONLEA Europe did not meet during the past year.
Implementation of Drug Control Treaties
The Commission will review the implementation of the key international drug control treaties: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, amended
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by the 1972 Protocol; the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances; and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In doing so, the Commission will have before it the annual report of the INCB for 1995, which was issued in February.
This year's INCB Report notes "enormous difficulties" faced by a number of countries in combating illicit drug abuse and trafficking. Among the problems highlighted in the Report are weaknesses in recently enacted anti-money laundering laws in some countries, continued large-scale cultivation of cannabis in several regions, the spread of cocaine abuse to west Africa and eastern Europe, increasing drug-related violence in previously less affected Caribbean countries and drug abuse due to the large-scale prescribing of attention deficit disorder remedies in the United States. Numerous examples of how global economic integration, opening borders and deregulation of trade are facilitating international drug trafficking are included. (For details on the report, see Press Release SOC/NAR/721/Rev.1, issued on 21 February.)
Precursors
Also before the Commission is a report of the INCB on action taken by States to prevent the diversion of precursor chemicals from licit to illicit channels. Article 12 of the 1988 Convention recommends a wide range of actions States parties might take to strengthen controls of chemicals used in the manufacture of illicit drugs. The Board has recommended that exporting countries take steps to identify and investigate suspicious shipments and that importing countries provide feedback on specific cases so that the shipments in question can be stopped or seized. It has also called for further regulation of manufacture and domestic distribution in a number of countries in order to prevent internal diversion of chemicals, which are often subsequently smuggled to neighbouring countries where illicit manufacture of drugs takes place.
Maritime Cooperation
The Commission is also scheduled to review action taken by the UNDCP to help States implement the recommendations of the working group on maritime cooperation which met in Vienna in 1994 to identify barriers to cooperation in the interdiction of drug traffic by sea and to recommend suitable remedies. Before the Commission in that regard is a report covering the recommendations of an expert group convened by the UNDCP from 27 to 29 February to advise on training and other forms of technical cooperation to improve governments' ability to carry out the relevant provisions of the 1988 Convention. Article 17 of the Convention provides for cooperation among States parties in identifying, boarding and searching suspicious ships, as well as in conducting whatever arrests and seizures might be called for.
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Annexed to the report is a proposed training curriculum for maritime drug law enforcement that would cover policy, strategy and law; training for managers in the development and execution of a coherent enforcement strategy; and applicable laws and agreements, including the law of the sea, the 1988 Convention and national laws.
Membership of Commission
The 53 members of the Commission are: Algeria, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.
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