PRESS BRIEFING ON WORLD DRUG REPORT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON WORLD DRUG REPORT

Giorgio Giacomelli, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this morning that the new World Drug Report was a snapshot of the world drug situation captured at a particular stage in its evolution.

It was difficult to assemble concrete data about the drug problem and all its aspects, Mr. Giacomelli said. That was hardly surprising given that the manufacture, buying, selling and consumption of drugs were, by their nature, furtive and secretive activities. In addition, some aspects were extremely controversial and others highly political, which often led to the misinterpretation of facts and figures. Drug abuse was a disturbing and thought-provoking subject, combining human tragedy, crime, and politics. One of the purposes in producing the report was to raise the general public's awareness of the subject and provide people with honest, unbiased facts.

Mr. Giacomelli said the new World Drug Report should contribute towards separating the myth from reality. The report was the first comprehensive overview of the status of drugs and drug-related phenomenon. It contained facts and conclusions uncluttered by emotion or exaggeration and based on the findings of respected researchers from different backgrounds. Much painstaking analysis of available facts had been necessary to produce the accurate conclusions found in the report.

The World Drug Report began with a survey of global trends in drug production, trafficking and consumption and then proceeded to a consideration of the latest social and economic consequences, Mr. Giacomelli said. Also included in the report were theories as to why people took drugs; why some were able to quit on their own accord whereas others remain addicted. The report looked at public policy and drug control and examined the issues surrounding the debate on drug legalization. In addition, it discussed how policies were translated into preventive action. There was also a brief history of international cooperation in drug control and a review of what the United Nations was doing. Then, in a series of case studies and country profiles, the report examined some of the different national approaches which had been adopted in different parts of the world.

Asked what alternatives the UNDCP had proposed for the peasants who grew the plants that produced illicit drugs, Mr. Giacomelli said that while providing alternatives was an extremely hard and difficult task, it could work provided it was adopted at the global level. Every government, developing and

UNDCP Briefing - 2 - 25 June 1997

developed, needed to include in their development programme specific alternatives, which besides aiming at improving the social condition of people, also contained the specific object of diminishing and eventually doing away with drug production. If a global approach to the problem was not pursued, it would result in a "balloon affect", by which cultivation would shift from one region to another when an isolated intervention was undertaken.

Mr. Giacomelli went on to say that the elimination of the cultivation of drugs could not be truly successful unless, at the same time, alternatives were offered to the populations which were "addicts to the cultivation of drugs". Those populations had been dependent on that unique source of income for generations. Many producing countries currently included in their programme of development a specific area for which they hoped to receive support from donor countries to deal with this aspect.

Was the use of drugs, particularly marijuana, on the rise? a correspondent asked. Mr. Giacomelli said "yes", unfortunately drug use had increased. The numbers had increased because the UNDCP, as well as other agencies, had made an effort to learn more, so a lot of unknown or neglected aspects in many countries were now surfacing. In the United States, the world largest drug market, the increase was dramatic, and the age of people who were becoming hooked decreased every year. Moreover, out of the 13 million drug addicts that were considered to exist every month in the United States, 10 million were addicted to marijuana. Marijuana was ubiquitous; it was produced everywhere and abused everywhere. Marijuana was also considered to be "the main gate to drug abuse", because it was easily accessible, reasonably cheap, and it had developed an image, through "rave parties" and in films, that was not as scary as other drugs.

A correspondent asked if the UNDCP had addressed the biochemical aspects of different illicit drugs. Mr. Giacomelli said that was a complex matter, and the report did address it in an accessible way. While drugs acted in different, specific ways and had affinities with substances which occurred naturally in the human brain, such as dopamine, "they all acted at the hinge between the body and the mind, the spirit and the soul". Drugs intervened and completely distorted that balance.

Given the increase in drug use, and the failure of the war on drugs in the United States, could the Report's section on legalization lead to a different United Nations drug policy? a correspondent asked. Mr. Giacomelli said the UNDCP was based upon United Nations conventions, and it was under the governance of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which had made clear that legalization was not a viable option. On the other hand, it was important that the report was not partisan and presented a cross-section of opinion. The UNDCP provided a fair presentation of the issue which should not be confused with a position taken in a preconceived way. While the United Nations remained a governmental body, it had to be more open to civil society, especially non-governmental organizations, and therefore it should "join the fray" and discuss all relevant subjects with them.

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