UNITED NATIONS DRUG COMMISSION PREPARING FOR 'MAJOR MILESTONE' IN TACKLING WORLD'S DRUG PROBLEM
Press Release
SOC/NAR/753
UNITED NATIONS DRUG COMMISSION PREPARING FOR 'MAJOR MILESTONE' IN TACKLING WORLD'S DRUG PROBLEM
19970320 (Reproduced as received.)VIENNA, 19 March (UN Information Service) -- The Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the United Nations intergovernmental body which sets drug control policy for the world, is meeting in Vienna for its regular annual session and to launch preparations for a special 1998 session of the General Assembly that is expected to be a "major milestone"in tackling the drug problem.
Among the issues raised in the discussions, which began yesterday and continue through 27 March, are:
-- the rapid spread of synthetic stimulants such as "Ecstasy" and "speed", seen by many as the major drug problem for the twenty-first century, and what the international community can do about it;
-- the legality and possible medical value of prescribing narcotic drugs such as methadone -- and heroin itself -- to addicts, along with the latest findings and impact of such practices on individuals, society and international drug control; and
-- the need for tightened controls over money laundering and the chemicals needed for production of illicit drugs.
In opening remarks to the delegates, Giorgio Giacomelli, Executive Director of the Vienna-based United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), reviewed progress made by the United Nations in the area of drug control since the International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which was held in Vienna in 1988. He credited the Programme with introducing a people-oriented focus for global drug control -- a shift from the "fire-fighter approach" of previous strategies.
He called on the international community to seek a better understanding of "drug traffickers, whose bread and butter is, quite simply, the misery of others. It was crucial, he said, to refocus on people and not just the drugs themselves. That would include "people trapped in the nightmare of drug addiction, their families, the victims of drug-related crime and the peasants who produce coca leaf and opium poppy to feed their children".
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Because the Commission will begin preparing for the 1998 Assembly session on drugs, about 480 delegates and observers are attending this year's session. The special session, which will be convened for three days in New York in the fall of 1998, is expected to consider what changes might be required in the current international strategy, known as the "Global Programme of Action", which was launched in 1990.
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