PRESS BRIEFING ON INCB 1998 ANNUAL REPORT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON INCB 1998 ANNUAL REPORT

International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) member, Ambassador Herbert Okun of the United States, discussed the Board's 1998 annual report in a press briefing today at Headquarters.

The report contains an analysis of the drug control situation worldwide and is meant to keep governments aware of the implementation of the three drug control treaties that the Board monitors: the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961; the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971; and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988. The Board consists of 13 members, who are nominated by governments and then elected by the Economic and Social Council to serve a five-year term.

Among the highlights of the report, he said, was that the Board was calling for increased research into the possible medical benefits of cannabis. The medical use of marijuana was a contentious subject that had been argued, not only in the United States, but in other countries. The Board believed that much of the controversial debate was characterized by ignorance, emotion and propaganda on all sides. That situation should come to an end. Qualified, unbiased researchers should do the basic science on the matter and find out if there were medical benefits of cannabis.

Mr. Okun added that the Board welcomed serious and scientific research on cannabis and the wide dissemination of that research. At the same time, the Board continued to oppose legalization of marijuana. If the medical usefulness of cannabis should be established, cannabis would remain a drug no different than other narcotic drugs. It would still be subject to licensing and other control measures according to international treaties -- just like morphine and opiates. The effort was by no means a call for loosening the controls on cannabis; it was a call for serious research into the alleged medical benefits of the drug.

A second medical issued addressed in the report related to the availability of pain killing drugs, he said, especially morphine. The Board was launching a campaign called "Freedom from Pain" because the availability of pain-killing drugs in the developing countries was tragically low. The availability of pain- killing drugs in the top 20 developed countries was about 100 times greater than in the bottom 20 developing countries. Through its mandate, the Board had a responsibility to ensure the availability of drugs for medical purposes. It had issued a report on the same topic in 1995, but unfortunately it had little effect. Hundreds of millions of people were suffering from extreme pain with no drugs to treat them. It was the responsibility of drug-producing countries, national health authorities and many others to change that situation.

INCB Briefing - 2 - 22 February 1999

Mr. Okun said a third key topic in the report was the situation with regard to psychotropic drugs, particularly amphetamine-type substances and the differences between Europe and the Americas in their prescribing practices. "Put simply, the Europeans like downers and the Americans like uppers", he said. Europeans were more likely to take anxiety-reducing drugs and relaxants, while Americans were more likely to take performance enhancing drugs. One reason for that might be that the population in Europe was older and they were more likely to take relaxants. It could also be related to extensive health- care systems or the stress levels of living in Europe.

In the Americas, however, there was a much greater prevalence of drugs that affected one's body image such as diet pills and slimming drugs, he said. There were athletic drugs for performance enhancement and Ritillin to increase attention spans in children. There was also Viagra to cure impotence and improve sexual performance. In North and South America, there was heavy emphasis on such drugs. That disparity between Europe and the Americas might be due to life-style differences, cultural differences, or prescribing practices.

Mr. Okun said the first chapter of the report provided an overview of international drug-control efforts. The first international conference on drugs had been at Shanghai in 1909. The report pointed out that the situation before international cooperation and regulation of drugs had, by no means, been a paradise, as some people had suggested. At the turn of century, with the forcing of opium into China by the imperial powers of the West, about 25 per cent of the male, adult population of China had been opium smokers. At that time, consumption of opium in China had been at 3,000 tons per year. Today, consumption worldwide -- legal and illegal -- was about 600 tons per year. International drug control had, in fact, reduced opium consumption. Also, the total number of cocaine and heroin deaths in the United States in 1912 had exceeded 5,000. That was five times higher than the deaths for 1998. Despite those successes, the Board remained realistic. Drug control was not a panacea -- the problem of illicit drugs was still with us.

In response to a question on drug control problems in the Caribbean and Latin American region, he said the report addressed problems in that area specifically. The region continued to be highly vulnerable to the elicit traffic of drugs and their precursors and to criminal activities such as money laundering and corruption. Transit traffic in cocaine had increased its availability and fuelled a rise in consumption in the whole region. There was, therefore, a double problem: the transit and export of drugs and domestic usage. It was important to keep working with the countries. It was a problem for the consuming countries, as well as the producing countries, and it would not be solved easily or soon.

Did the Board have a time frame or deadline for making conclusions on the medical use of marijuana? a correspondent asked. Mr. Okun said it did not have a deadline because it was not the Board that would be doing the research. It was calling on countries with the right scientific capacities to do such research. The Board hoped such countries would respond to its call soon.

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