Danielle Kurtzleben
WASHINGTON, Jun 24 2009 (IPS) – While worldwide production of heroin and cocaine appears to be slowing, there has been an increase in the use of synthetic drugs, especially in the Middle East, according to the latest report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released Wednesday.
The 314-page report covers four broad categories of drugs opiates (including heroin), coca/cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamine-type stimulants as well as the criminal activity associated with illicit drugs.
The statistics included in the report highlight several major trends, notably the stable or decreasing markets for opiates, cocaine, and cannabis.
Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC s executive director, said at a press conference in Washington that production of opium and coca in their respective major cultivation areas was down. Coca cultivation in Colombia is down 18 percent from last year, for example, and opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is down 19 percent from last year.
However, alongside these more encouraging trends are more troubling statistics. For example, while cocaine seizures are down by 49 metric tonnes from two years ago, they are still almost double what they were as recent as 2002. Likewise, cannabis usage remains widespread on a global level.
Also, it would appear that, as statistics show other drug markets to be level or shrinking, there has been an increase in the use of synthetic drugs, especially in the Middle East. This trade is particularly difficult to track and counter, as the production of these drugs is carried out not in large cultivated fields but in laboratories.
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Furthermore, production of opium and cocaine has not dropped as precipitously as the cultivation of opium poppies and coca bush. This may imply that producers are finding new ways to create more drugs from fewer cultivated plants.
Still, the cocaine market is showing signs of a strained global drug situation; the U.S., for example, has seen a drop in overall drug purity and an increase in cost. Those are two leading indicators showing a tight market, said Costa.
While trends appear stable on many fronts, perhaps more striking is a new focus on drug users, rather than the substances themselves. One part of this new strategy is changing the rhetoric used in the fight against illicit drugs.
In the U.S. we are moving away from the divisive drug war rhetoric, said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a position that has also come to be known as the drug czar.
The earlier we can intervene with people with drug problems, the better; it just makes sense, Kerlikowske added. The Obama administration is focused on getting treatment for people in need.
Costa likewise emphasised that this type of thinking could be useful on a global level. Drug addiction is a disease, he said, adding that treatment, not prison time, is the only way to curb drug usage over the long term.
I appeal to the heroic partisans of the human rights cause worldwide to help UNOCD promote the right to health of drug addicts, he states in his preface to the report.
As the report also states, The purpose of arrest and incarceration is to deter, incapacitate, and rehabilitate drug offenders. For certain classes of offenders, it accomplishes none of these objectives well In particular, it is rarely effective to imprison drug users.
Alongside this increased emphasis on treating users is the increased acknowledgement of the transnational organised crime that accompanies drug use and trafficking. In the report, Costa stresses this focus on crime: I urge governments to recalibrate the policy mix, without delay, in the direction of more controls on crime, without fewer controls on drugs.
Indeed, issues of crime and national security with relation to drugs have lately been increasingly important to the US. For this reason, West Africa continues to grow as an area of focus and a topic of discussion for those who want to control drug consumption/production.
A Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday focused specifically on the problem of drug trafficking through West Africa.
What happens on the African continent, with regard to security threats, does not stay on the African continent, said Doug Farah, senior fellow at the International Assessment Strategy Centre in Maryland, noting that drug-related crime travels easily from continent to continent, as drugs move from Latin America to Africa to Europe and other major markets.
Michael Braun, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief of operations, likewise warned of the dangers of the cooperation between terrorist organisations with drug-trafficking organisations in West Africa. In his full statement for the Committee, Braun notes the presence and operation of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas on the African continent.
Thomas Harrigan, assistant administrator and chief of operations of the DEA s Operations Division, also reminded the committee of FARC s major presence in West Africa, adding that this ungoverned region is an opportune place for large-scale criminal activity to take place. The current political and economic environment provides an unprecedented opportunity for terrorists and drug traffickers to flourish, Harrigan said.
In light of the threat posed by West African drug trafficking, Kerlikowske said that the Obama administration s FY2010 budget includes a provision for 6.7 million dollars for counter-narcotics efforts in Africa.
The challenge, then, is using that money wisely. Farah said that technologically advanced intelligence can only go so far; human intelligence, he says, is crucial to understanding how these operations work. Some of it is high-tech but some of it is incredibly low-tech.
Costa highlighted the effectiveness of some anti-trafficking tactics in West Africa, evidenced by a recent drop in the share of detected cocaine couriers whose flights originated in West Africa. This figure is down, from 59 percent to 6 percent.
However, it should be noted that cocaine often travels from West Africa to Europe via other routes, such as the use of many individual couriers.
This is one reason why Farah says an increased human intelligence-gathering presence on the ground in West Africa is vital: In Guinea Bissau, I guarantee you everybody knows who the major traffickers are.
Still, though West Africa s myriad trafficking problems were prominent at the hearing, global demand remained an integral part of the discussion. I m convinced that the Europeans need to step up to the plate and do a hell of a lot more, said Braun, referring to Europe s large cocaine market.
However, Costa emphasises that he does not consider blame a productive activity: It is not the role of the U.N. to point fingers. The report reflects this desire not to marginalise nations with drug problems, stressing the need to integrate the marginalised individuals, areas, and nations that cultivate, consume, and distribute drugs.
