health

POLITICS: U.N. Drug Report Claims Crackdown Is Paying Off

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 2006 (IPS) – Global opium production, particularly in Southeast Asia, fell during 2005, while cocaine production was broadly unchanged compared to 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which released its 2006 World Drug Report here Monday.
The two-volume report, which singled out efforts by Laos to stamp out opium production for special praise, warned that cocaine consumption in Western Europe has reached alarming levels . It also featured a special section suggesting that the world s most popular illicit drug, cannibis, may be more dangerous than previously believed.

What progress in drug control has been made could be easily reversed, particularly if farmers in major opium- or coca-growing areas are not provided development aid, according to the report, which, however, was generally upbeat about the global drug situation.

Drug control is working, and the world drug problem is being contained, UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa told reporters here.

This is true whether we look over the long term or even just over the past few years, he added, noting that, Humanity has entered the 21st century with much lower levels of drug cultivation and drug addiction than 100 years earlier. Even more importantly, in the past few years, worldwide efforts to reduce the threat posed by illicit drugs have halted a quarter-century-long rise in drug abuse that, if left unchecked, could have become a global pandemic.

Several critics, however, took issue both with Costa s claims of success for drug-control efforts and even with some of the factual assertions cited in the report, particularly those that compared drug production and use today with a century ago when the first international drug-control initiatives were undertaken.
Related IPS Articles

His claim that the world drug problem is not as bad as 100 years ago is preposterous, noted Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). This report provides ample evidence why such evaluations need to be undertaken by independent, outside auditors, rather than a highly politicised entity like UNODC.

The report suffers from the tension between UNODC policy makers who want a strict control regime maintained and who are under huge U.S. funding pressure and the experts willing to open an honest debate about the effectiveness of outdated aspects of the currency policy framework, added Tom Blickman of the Drugs and Democracy Programme of the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam.

The report estimated the total number of drug users in the world today at some 200 million people, or about five percent of the global population, ages 15-64.

Of that total, some 162 million are believed to use cannabis; some 35 million use amphetamine-type stimulants, including ecstasy; 16 million, opiates; and 13 million, cocaine.

According to the report, a five-percent reduction in global opium production and a 22-percent reduction in the estimated area under illicit poppy cultivation marked the greatest advance in drug control during 2005.

The greatest progress was achieved in the so-called Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia where the total area under cultivation fell from almost 160,000 hectares in 1998 to just 34,600 hectares in 2005.

While Burma, which just a few years ago was the world s largest opium producer, continued to reduce the area under cultivation to about one quarter of 1998 levels, Laos made even greater strides, reducing cultivation area by 72 percent in just one year, and placing the country on the verge of becoming opium poppy free .

In Afghanistan, which in 2005 produced nearly 90 percent of the world s opium, total production and the area under cultivation both fell for the first time since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The report noted, however, that planting of opium poppy has increased during 2006, particularly in the Pashtun-dominated southern provinces. While the area under cultivation decreased in 2005, the country s drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal, the reported noted. This could happen as early as 2006.

In the Americas, opium production is also believed to have fallen during 2005, according to the report. For Colombia, it cited government estimates of a 50 percent reduction in the area cultivated with opium poppy to 2,000 hectares; for Mexico, it cited U.S. estimates of a 32-percent decline over two years to about 3,300 hectares.

Global coca cultivation and cocaine production remained stable during 2005, according to the report. An eight-percent increase in the area under coca cultivation in Colombia, where some 54 percent of the world s coca is grown, was balanced by corresponding declines in Bolivia and Peru, it said.

The report also noted a six-fold increase in cocaine seizures in West and Central Africa, which it said has become an increasingly important transit point for cocaine shipments bound for Europe where cocaine use is on the rise, and some 3.5 million people have now become users. While that remains significantly fewer than the estimated 6.5 million users in North America, it runs counter to the broader trend of declining use on the other side of the Atlantic.

After years of massive increases in the 1990s, according to the report, the market for amphetamine-type stimulants appears to be stabilising, according to the report.

Cannibis, which is produced in some 176 countries, according to the report, is growing in popularity virtually everywhere, although North America is the largest-consuming region in economic terms.

The report called for policy-makers who have favoured more tolerant policies toward cannabis to rethink their positions in light of the emergence of the development of more-potent new cannabis and recent research indicating that the health risks associated with cannabis consumption may have been under-estimated in the past .

It also claimed that there had been an increase of acute health episodes believed to have been caused by cannabis consumption in U.S. emergency rooms and a growth in rehabilitation demand from cannabis users in the U.S. and Europe.

But DPA s Nadelmann called the report s remarks about cannabis hysterical and lacking in scientific rigour.

Both he and TNI also assailed the report for its failure to adequately address measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of drug use. This means that the real existing success stories from the past decade, such as reduced numbers of overdose deaths and lower rates of HIV transmission due to harm-reduction efforts, are left out (of the report) completely, noted TNI researcher Martin Jelsma.

 

Related Posts

Get a job- Google is looking to hire a Graphics Engineer

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Graphics EngineerGoogle

Location: Mountain View, CA

Google is not a conventional company, and we don’t intend to become one. True, we share attributes with the world’s most successful organizations – a focus on innovation and smart business practices comes to mind – but even as we continue to…

Get a job- Heart Machine is hiring a Gameplay Engineer

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Gameplay Engineer, Heart Machine

Location: Culver City, California Come from South African Online Casinos

Heart Machine is a small, deeply motivated and close-knit team located in Los Angeles. Our focus is gameplay that’s engaging, fluid an…

Get a job- Hi-Rez Studios seeks a Character Rigger

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Character RiggerHi-Rez Studios

Location: Alpharetta, GA

Hi-Rez Studios is immediately hiring a qualified character rigger to work at our studio in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Come join the creator of the critically acclaimed Smite,

Experimental Gameplay Workshop returns to GDC 2014 with star lineup

With less than two weeks remaining before the Game Developers Conference 2014, show organizers are detailing the lineup of the ever-popular Experimental Gameplay Workshop, which returns to GDC for its 12th year. This jam-packed two-hour session — which takes place Friday, March 21 at 2:30pm in Room 135 of the San Francisco Moscone Center's North Hall — will showcase an eclectic mix of unusual game prototypes that defy convention and explore new ideas and genres. This year the EGW is curated and organized by leading creators Robin Hunicke and Daniel Benmergui, and it promises to be an exciting opportunity for presenters and attendees alike to explore some fresh territory in game design. A number of 'experimental' …

Black Ops 6 Reveal Trailer Provides First Glimpse At 2024's Call Of Duty

The first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now. The trailer doesn’t show any footage, but is instead a live-action mood piece that features a number of real-world political leaders, including Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and Saddam Hussein.

The trailer’s thumbnail also contains coordinates that point to the location of Hussein’s palace. The game seems be themed around questioning the government’s version of facts. “If it’s the truth you seek, look in the dark,” reads a line from the trailer’s description. Take a look at the trailer below.

Balatro Hits Big Sales Milestone After Being Showered With Awards

Developer Localthunk has revealed that Balatro has recently passed the 5 million sales milestone across all platforms. Come from South African Online Casinos

“The last few weeks have been pretty wild. To everyone who picked up Balatro after seeing it at The Game Awards, we hope you’re having an amazing time with it,” the developer said on Twitter. “If this is your first time picking up an indie title, try to make it a habit!”

According to Balatro’s publisher, Playstack, the 5 million mark doesn’t include downloads from Apple Arcade. Additionally, the game was sitting at 3.5 million copies sold at the first week of December, indicating that it received a boost in exposure after being nominated as a Game of t…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *