INCB SESSION TO FOCUS ON INTERACTION BETWEEN SUPPLY AND DEMAND STRATEGIES AGAINST DRUG ABUSE

INCB SESSION TO FOCUS ON INTERACTION BETWEEN SUPPLY

AND DEMAND STRATEGIES AGAINST DRUG ABUSE

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 17 May (UN Information Service) -- The interaction between supply and demand strategies against the global drug abuse problem will be the focus of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which opened its eightieth session today in Vienna.

During its current two-week session from 17 to 28 May 2004, the Board, an independent body of 13 international experts, will also review the results of missions and technical visits to the following countries:  Indonesia, Portugal, Thailand and Timor Leste.  These missions were undertaken to obtain first-hand and onsite information on the national drug control situation and on the implementation of the international drug control treaties in these countries.

The Board will also review the extent to which governments have implemented recommendations made to them, pursuant to missions undertaken by the Board during 2001:  Egypt, Jamaica, Pakistan, Ukraine and Serbia and Montenegro.

The INCB issues an annual report on its findings in the field of worldwide drug abuse and trafficking.  Each annual report also devotes special attention to a specific drug-related issue in its lead, first chapter.  The reports of the Board are released at the beginning of each year, usually in late February.

The Vienna-based Board is a quasi-judicial body that monitors the implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions.  It was established in 1968 in accordance with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.  The INCB is independent of governments, as well as of the United Nations. Its 13 members are elected by the Economic and Social Council and serve in their personal capacity, not as government representatives. Its sessions are closed.

The current members of the Board are:  Edouard Armenakovich Babayan (Russian Federation); Madan Mohan Bhatnagar (India); Elisaldo Luiz de Araْú Jo Carlini (Brazil); Philip O. Emafo (Nigeria); Gilberto Gerra (Italy); Hamid Ghodse (Iran); Nüzhet Kandemir (Turkey); Melvyn Levitsky (United States); Robert Lousberg (Netherlands); Maria Elena Medina-Mora (Mexico); Alfredo Pemjean (Chile); Rainer Wolfgang Schmid (Austria); and Jiwang Zheng (China).

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