PRESS CONFERENCE ON NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD REPORT

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD REPORT

While large quantities of drugs were available through illegal channels, many of the world's poorest people lacked legal access to painkillers to alleviate the pain of disease, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this morning, launching the 1999 annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

The United States member of the INCB, Herbert Okun, said the Board felt duty-bound to draw attention to the lack of legal painkillers to alleviate the horrific pain of disease, particularly in the world's poorest countries. This year's report on the world's drug situation, in addition to discussing international drug control and regional analyses, focused on "freedom from pain and suffering", and drugs required for medical and scientific purposes. According to the report, the international community must exploit the benefits of globalization in order to make essential narcotic drugs available to those who need them.

The INCB works with governments to limit the cultivation and production of drugs to amounts adequate for scientific and medical use, ensure that adequate supplies are available for those purposes, and prevent drug abuse and illicit trafficking. Its 13 members are elected by the Economic and Social Council upon the nomination of governments. The Board has both legislative and judicial functions and works closely with United Nations bodies, particularly the International Drug Control Programme. It administers the three international drug control treaties: the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971) and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988).

Mr. Okun said the grim reality was that people worldwide were suffering from the lack of pain relieving drugs, particularly morphine and the opiates, for cancer-related pain and other kinds of pain. The 20 countries that were ranked highest on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) development index used 93 times more daily doses of pain killers than the poorest countries. Yet, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with whom the Board was collaborating closely on its "freedom from pain" campaign, most cancer will occur in poor and developing countries, precisely those which did not have adequate supply of painkillers for a variety of social, economic and cultural reasons. According to the WHO, two thirds of the estimated 15 million new cancer cases per year will occur in developing countries by the year 2015, and 70 to 80 per cent of cancer patients suffer severe pain in the late stages of the disease.]

The report also describes significant differences in drug use patterns between countries of similar socio-economic backgrounds, Mr. Okun said. In Western Europe, for example, sedatives, hypnotics and anxiety reducing drugs were used more than in the United States. Drug users in the United States, meanwhile, used amphetamines and performance enhancing drugs (include steroids

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for athletes, anorectics for body weight and viagra for sexual performance) more than their Western European counterparts.

He also drew attention to the report's section on drug injection rooms, which are administered by local authorities or social workers and provide heroin addicts with hygienic alternatives to the street. He had visited several injection rooms in Germany and they were extremely sad places. Australia, Spain and Switzerland either had or were considering creating such rooms. But the Board took the view that the rooms were "not in line with either the letter or the spirit of the international treaties, because they encourage trafficking and basically encourage drug use", he said. Heroin was an illicit substance, and the rooms aided and abetted users, even though selling did not take place in them. Those in favour of the rooms argued that since users were going to take drugs anyway, it was better to provide safe places for them, but the Board felt that this did not address the problem.

A correspondent asked for information on hydroponic cannabis (grown indoors). Mr. Okun explained that this form was common in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. Advanced countries had advanced techniques to "improve the product", which in this case meant increasing the content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance in cannabis. Such "advances" meant that cannabis today was "probably as strong a hallucinogen as cocaine was 10 or 15 years ago".

Trafficking in hydroponic cannabis followed traditional patterns, he continued. In the United States movement was largely from West to East, as most production took place in the West. From Canada, the route was south to Oregon and California. From the Netherlands, it was distributed worldwide. The Dutch Government had only recently begun to crack down on "Nederweit" being grown in greenhouses.

When a correspondent asked about the role of the Internet, Mr. Okun said the report discussed the use of the Web and Internet for marketing cannabis seeds and products, including paraphernalia to grow marijuana. Those products were banned under international treaties, and governments should pay as much attention to drug control treaties as to arms control treaties.

Was the lack of painkillers due to prohibitive costs, as with drugs to counter the effects of HIV/AIDS? a correspondent asked. Cost was not an issue, Mr. Okun stressed. Morphine was not expensive. There were many reasons for the lack of morphine and opiates to alleviate horrific pain related to disease. These included inadequate attention by governments and national health services; and economic, cultural and social factors. Developing countries were overwhelmed with health problems, such as infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS and diarrhea. Their populations tended to be young, so health interventions focused on problems occurring in younger years, while cancer-related pain often came with age. There were also problems related to limited resources and poor distribution practices.

Bad medical practices, such as improper diagnosis and lax prescribing practices, were another factor, he said. Developed countries were often

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concerned about the diversion of drugs from legal channels, and so had overly restrictive measures that made it hard for doctors to prescribe morphine for cancer patients. But, the Board had examined the question of diversion and found it to be a rare occurrence. Doctors were also concerned about being accused of addicting people.

A correspondent asked for a comment on the fact that Haiti had become a principal trafficking route in the Caribbean, despite the large United Nations and United States presence there. Mr. Okun said that Haiti's problems were many and complex, but it was also a fact that Haitian and international law enforcement authorities were not doing their job. All Member States must fulfil their international obligations. That was why the Board had emphasized the situation in Haiti in its report.

A similar situation had unfolded in Albania, which was the only country in Europe that refused to sign any of the three drug control treaties, he said. Albania had become a major producer of marijuana and a major trafficker to Italy and northern Europe. According to Italian authorities, the Albanian mafia dominated trafficking and retail sales of heroin in Italy. The international community was significantly involved in Albania, yet it was becoming "the Afghanistan of Western Europe". The United Nations and the world community must not turn a blind eye to the problem.

At the same time, the United Nations had a lot to do under very difficult circumstances, he stressed. United Nations peacekeepers were not sent to Disneyland -– they went to the world's most murderous places and addressed multifaceted problems.

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