Global Policy Forum

By Gustavo Capdevila

Globalisation and the latest information technologies, particularly the Internet, create a challenge for developing effective anti-drugs policies, warned the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) Wednesday.

In its report for 2001, the INCB, a specialised agency of the United Nations, alerts governments that "there is a real danger that the benefits of new technologies might be seriously undermined by criminals for illicit gain."

Drug traffickers use the instantaneous communication of the Internet to improve their distribution and delivery systems. Internet technology allows them to hide information about illegal drug shipments through encrypted messages, and on-line communications give them a means to carry out electronic funds transfers, through which they can launder their drug profits.

In the Netherlands, some companies have utilised the Internet to sell marijuana seeds and cannabis products worldwide. British authorities have identified more than 1,000 websites aimed at selling illegal drugs, including marijuana, heroin, ecstasy and cocaine.

The drug cartels of Colombia and Mexico, meanwhile, have used cutting-edge equipment to monitor those who are investigating them. Drug traffickers are intercepting the communications of the anti-drug agents and gathering photos and personal information about them.

The report also indicates that in a matter of minutes, anyone browsing the Internet can obtain detailed information on the manufacture of synthetic drugs and how to purchase the necessary chemicals and laboratory equipment.

Cyber-crime is easy, said INCB president Amid Ghodse in his presentation of the report Wednesday in Vienna, home to this UN agency. Committing crimes through this digital channel requires only scant resources and the danger for the criminal, or the chance that he or she would be caught, are minimal, said Ghodse.

The UN board proposes confronting this form of cyber-crime through a framework of international cooperation and surveillance. The document, which provides an overview of the operations of the international narcotics control system, criticises the "misdirected" anti-drugs policies followed by certain unnamed governments.

"Many such policies tend to focus on a single aspect of the problem, for instance, supply reduction," said Ghodse, who gathered observations made by developing countries about the nations of the industrialised North.

At the same time, he said, governments often neglect "other areas that might be equally important, such as reducing demand for illicit drugs and preventing favourable conditions for spin-off crimes like money-laundering."

The INCB "is placing equal priority on all aspects of drug control whether related to demand or to supply reduction," said the official.

The Board's report also points to the great differences that persist between rich and poor countries with respect to the consumption of drugs aimed at treating moderate to severe pain. The 20 countries that consume the most painkillers are in the industrialised world, such as the United States, which consumes 40 percent of the morphine used worldwide for therapeutic purposes.

The INCB said it is "concerned that, in many countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, the consumption of narcotic drugs for the treatment of moderate to severe pain continues to be extremely low."

The consumption of crack, a drug based on cocaine paste, has expanded more rapidly than other drugs in South Africa because it has the most accessible price. Cocaine use, meanwhile, is on the rise in Angola and Namibia. Intravenous heroin consumption is spreading through some parts of the African continent, increasing the risk of the spread of HIV/AIDS, the pandemic that has already devastated many of the southern countries.

The INCB study states that cocaine use in Canada and the United States has stabilised, and in some cases has dropped. However, the organisation expresses concern about the health and social costs of widespread marijuana consumption in the two countries.

South America continues to be the only region where coca leaf - the raw material for cocaine - is produced, with relatively stable production levels overall. Consumption of this drug has risen nearly everywhere, but particularly in what are known as "transit countries" for narcotics trafficking, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela. But cocaine consumption appears to have dropped in Bolivia and Peru, where the area planted with coca was significantly reduced in recent years.

The drug eradication programme known as Plan Colombia has heightened concern that traffickers will shift their activity to neighbouring countries. The report describes how Plan Colombia covers the aerial fumigation with herbicides to wipe out coca and opium poppy fields, and how last year such operations involved 50,000 hectares of illicit crops. But the INCB recognises the protests that have erupted in Colombia against the use of high concentrations of glyphosate in the fumigations, combined with other products, that harm legal food crops, the environment and human health.

Meanwhile, Myanmar last year became the world's leading producer of opium poppies after the ban established in Afghanistan by the former Taliban regime and as a result of the drought suffered by that country. Opium originating in Afghanistan continues to be trafficked through Iran and Pakistan, says the INCB. However, there has been a reduction in the total area cultivated with opium poppies in Laos and Vietnam, while the presence of the illegal crop in Thailand is minimal.

Europe remains the principal source of synthetic drugs, such as ecstasy, which is consumed primarily by young adults, there and in other regions. The INCB criticised certain European countries for legalising the possession and consumption of controlled substances, and for tolerating the use of marijuana and ecstasy. None of those governments has been able to demonstrate that the application of such policies reduces the demand for illegal drugs, says the UN agency.

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