Pubdate: Thu,  27 Feb 2003
Source: Economist, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Contact:  http://www.economist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132

THE UN'S DOWNER ON DRUGS

 From The Economist Global Agenda

The United Nations is worried about resurgent opium production in 
Afghanistan and soaring ecstasy use worldwide. But its ideas on how to deal 
with the problem are attracting criticism

ONE of the few things that won international praise for Afghanistan's 
fundamentalist former rulers, the Taliban, was their crackdown on the 
growing of opium poppies. As a result, cultivation fell dramatically in 
2001 and Afghanistan temporarily lost its traditional place as the world's 
main supplier of the raw material for heroin. But after the American-led 
toppling of the Taliban regime in the wake of the September 11th attacks, 
Afghan farmers rushed to replant the lucrative crop. According to a report 
this month from the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime, the 
country's opium production is now back at the high levels of the 1990s (see 
chart).

The annual report of another UN agency, the International Narcotics Control 
Board (INCB), published on February 26th, urges richer countries to give 
Afghanistan more aid to help it stamp out poppy growing. The report argues 
that it was the growth of the opium trade that fuelled violent conflicts in 
the country during the 1990s. The INCB, which monitors countries' 
compliance with international drug-control treaties, also expresses alarm 
that the abuse of synthetic amphetamines, such as ecstasy, is spreading 
rapidly among nightclubbers all over the world, and reckons they could 
eventually become the most widely used illegal substances. The INCB's 
report urges countries to keep up their efforts to stamp out drugs 
trafficking, and criticises moves towards liberalisation. However, a senior 
UN human-rights official, Asma Jahangir, this week expressed his concern at 
Thailand's current harsh crackdown on drugs dealers, in which its police 
are suspected of extra-judicial killings of hundreds of suspects.

The Thai government claims most of the deaths have been due to drug gang 
leaders murdering potential informants. Even so, the country's efforts to 
stamp out drug cultivation and abuse are bearing a high cost in human 
lives, as are those of Andean countries such as Bolivia, where the 
government's attempts to stamp out coca production have contributed to a 
resurgence of violent protests in the past two months. As the INCB's report 
notes, Colombia has had some success with its big, American-funded plan to 
eradicate the coca bush and thus reduce the supply of cocaine. But one of 
the results has been a resurgence of cultivation in Bolivia and its spread 
to Venezuela and Ecuador.

The INCB argues that, since the growers of opium and coca see only a 
fraction of the profits from drugs trafficking, they could be weaned off 
their dependence with a relatively small increase in rich countries' 
foreign aid. It reckons the growers' annual incomes are equivalent to just 
2% of existing aid budgets, or 3% of America's total spending on drug 
control. However, there is not yet much evidence of lasting success from 
programmes to encourage growers to switch to alternative, legal crops. The 
INCB ties itself in knots arguing, on the one hand, that poor countries 
earn little from the drugs trade, while on the other hand claiming that it 
may cause so much "conspicuous consumption" that it causes inflation in 
these countries. In Afghanistan and Myanmar, the report reckons, opium may 
generate up to 15% of GDP, while coca may provide 3% of Colombia's national 
income.

Many of the ill effects that the UN board's report attributes to the drugs 
trade--such as corruption, violence and the resulting economic 
disruption--may be largely due to it being illegal and therefore in the 
hands of crime gangs. But the report laments the cautious steps towards 
decriminalisation that some richer countries have taken. In particular, it 
criticises Switzerland, which is liberalising the personal use of cannabis. 
The Swiss authorities believe they can do this without infringing 
international drug-control treaties but the INCB continues to insist 
otherwise. It even criticises Canada and the Netherlands for authorising 
the medical use of cannabis, calling on them and other countries to wait 
for "conclusive" results from research into its medical efficacy. This 
seems over-cautious to many experts. The Lancet, a British medical journal, 
recently noted that "on the medical evidence available, moderate indulgence 
in cannabis has little ill effect on health."

Agony over ecstasy In the longer term, perhaps a bigger threat to Afghan 
poppy growers and Andean coca farmers than official attempts to put them 
out of business is that drug users seem to be turning to amphetamine-based 
chemicals such as ecstasy, which are manufactured in illegal laboratories. 
As the INCB reports, ecstasy use is spreading from the nightclubs of rich 
western countries to southern Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, 
China, Thailand and Indonesia. Since much of it is thought to be made in 
western Europe, this represents a reversal in the flow of the drugs trade, 
from developed to developing countries.

Despite the discouraging news it has to report, the INCB takes heart from 
the fact that more countries are signing up to the various drug-control 
treaties. Thailand, Israel, Eritrea and Rwanda recently signed the most 
important one, the 1988 UN convention on drugs trafficking. This means that 
166 of the world's 192 nations are now signed up, with the UN pressing hard 
for the remaining 26 to follow suit. Nevertheless, there is little sign 
overall of any reduction in drugs production or consumption. And the heavy 
toll--both in violence and corruption of public institutions--that results 
from criminalisation remains evident across the world, from Bangkok to Rio 
de Janeiro.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom