Pubdate: Wed,  2 Mar 2005
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2005 BBC
Contact:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/558
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

UN WARNING TO BRITAIN ON HEROIN

The UK had the largest rate of heroin seizures and the third highest
number of heroin addicts in Europe in 2004, the UN has warned.

It said increased production in Afghanistan, where most of the UK's
supply came from, had not helped.

UN drugs watchdog the International Narcotics Control Board found the
UK had Europe's highest amphetamine usage and the third highest for
ecstasy.

Cocaine abuse in the UK had also risen despite stabilising in Europe,
it said.

'Wrong message'

The rate of ecstasy use was higher only in the Irish Republic and the
Czech Republic.

In the INCB's annual report, president Professor Hamid Ghodse repeated
concerns expressed in last year's report that the British government's
reclassification of cannabis from Class B to Class C could send the
wrong message to some users.

But the reclassification did not break international drug treaties, he
said.

Professor Ghodse warned that Afghanistan was in danger of becoming a
"narcotic state" after producing its largest annual crop of heroin -
4,200 tons - since the overthrow of Taleban rule.

He will call for international help for Afghanistan's drugs problem at
a press conference in London on Wednesday.

"The board is asking the international community to help Afghanistan
in this - it can't happen in isolation," he will say.

"The Afghanistan government needs to do something very serious, very
quickly." E The INCB warned the expansion of the EU could weaken
border controls and hinder efforts to reduce drug trafficking.

Some 90% of the heroin consumed in Britain and Europe comes from
Afghanistan's poppy fields.

Since allied forces ousted extremist Taleban rulers in December 2001,
opium production has increased 20-fold.

Tackling the drugs trade is a key element of UK policy in
Afghanistan.

Training an elite police unit to go after heroin labs and traffickers
has been one course of action.

However, drug education charity DrugScope said it was "too early to
say" whether increased opium production in Afghanistan was "fuelling
any growth in figures in the UK".

Petra Maxwell, from the charity, told the BBC it took around 12 to 18
months for opium harvested in that country to materialise as heroin on
the streets of Europe.

'Stabilised'

She they are "still waiting to see" what its effects in the UK would be.

She added that heroin use and other drug use in the UK has stabilised.

"What we are looking at is not necessarily a problem that is getting
worse very quickly, it has stabilised to a large extent," she said.

Ms Maxwell said recent crime figures had also shown a 20% fall in
ecstasy use.

She said the UK's drug problem had to be dealt with not only by
cutting supply from countries such as Columbia and Afghanistan, but
also by cutting demand.

"We also have to work hard at reducing the demand in the UK, because
when there's no demand for a product, there's no money to be made."

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced last month that the government
would double its aid to Afghanistan for fighting the country's drugs
trade.

He said Britain would give around £52m to counter narcotics programmes
in the country over the next financial year.

Half of the money will be devoted to schemes to provide opium poppy
farmers with alternative sources of income.

Mr Straw made the commitment after talks with the Afghan president
Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin