GLOBAL STRATEGY AGAINST SYNTHETIC STIMULANTS TO BE REVIEWED AT UNITED NATIONS MEETING OF EXPERTS IN SHANGHAI, CHINA

15 November 1996

Press Release
SOC/NAR/749

GLOBAL STRATEGY AGAINST SYNTHETIC STIMULANTS TO BE REVIEWED AT UNITED NATIONS MEETING OF EXPERTS IN SHANGHAI, CHINA

19961115 Officials from 30 Countries Will Discuss Growing Problem Of Amphetamine-type Substances Popular in Youth Culture Worldwide

VIENNA, 15 November (UN Information Service) -- Against a backdrop of increasing worldwide concern about illicit manufacture, traffic and abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants, the United Nations plans to bring together 42 top public health, law enforcement and policy experts from 30 countries to review the situation and devise an effective counter-strategy. The International Expert Meeting on Stimulants will take place from 25 to 29 November in Shanghai, China, where the first international meeting on narcotic drugs, the Shanghai Opium Commission, was convened in 1909. The Meeting is organized by the Vienna-based United Nations International Drug Control Programme, in cooperation with the Chinese Government and its National Narcotics Control Commission. Funding has been provided primarily by Japan. The meeting will have, as a basis for discussion, a 139-page global review of problems related to amphetamine-type stimulants such as amphetamine, methamphetamine and "Ecstasy", which have been called the "cocaine of the next century" and are considered by United Nations experts to be at least as dangerous as the conventional plant-based drugs. The participants are expected to draw up a number of policy recommendations for combating the spread of synthetic stimulants throughout the world. The substances concerned -- ingested by most users in the form of small tablets produced in illicit laboratories -- are gaining in popularity in more and more places, partly due to their association with popular youth trends such as techno-music and all-night dance parties, and partly because they do not carry as negative a social stigma as heroin and cocaine. At the same time, they carry serious risks, including depression, paranoia, blood pressure disturbances and violent behaviour. Many governments and the Drug Control Programme are concerned that the supply of synthetic stimulants cannot be easily controlled, since they can be manufactured by amateurs using cheap, readily available precursor substances. Strategies to reduce demand are, therefore, vital to deal with the problem. For further information on the Shanghai meeting is available from the United Nations Information Service, Vienna, at (43-1) 21345-4666, Fax: 21345-5899.

* *** *