Lebanon is one of the few countries in the Middle East, which has the potential to be self-sufficient with regard to water supplies. Lebanon has a considerably high percentage of cropland. 30% of its surface are arable compared with 21% in Israel, 5% in Jordan and 3% in Egypt.
The road network of the country, much as its infrastructure in general, have been badly damaged in the war. While 95% of the roads are paved, the road network is insufficient to cope with the increasing traffic. Today, Lebanon has one of the highest car/people ratios in the world with one car for every three people.
More than one-fourth of the popilation The population of Lebanon is live in the greater Beirut Area. The average age of the population is low, with 38.9% under the age of 19. Youth unemployment (15-24 years) was well over 50% in 1996.
Overview of Drug Control Situation
Lebanese bank secrecy laws are tougher than Switzerland’s; the government’s ability to assess non-salary income or financial flows is extremely limited . Previous governments have had a vision of Beirut as a financial center and bank secrecy was seen as a competitive advantage. Lebanon filed a reservation regarding the bank secrecy stipulations upon signature of the 1988 Convention. Lebanon has ratified the 1961, 1971 and 1988 Conventions.
Lebanese bank secrecy laws has led to a lack of monitoring procedures against money laundering. In March 1998, the government passed a revised drug control law, which also includes drug control stipulations regarding money laundering. These regulations, however, are assessed as insufficient by many observers.
A number of member countries to the 1988 Convention have objected to Lebanon’s reservation on the grounds that it is contrary to the object and purposes of the 1988 Convention and thus not in conformity with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The INCB concurs with this view and requested that if UNODC negotiates further assistance to Lebanon, it should insist on the withdrawal of the reservation and the pertinent adjustment the national legislation.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Lebanon was the major producer of illicit drugs in the Middle East. Cultivation of illicit crops started in Lebanon on an increasing scale in the district of Baalbek and Hermel in the northern Bekaa Valley. Following the start of the civil war in 1975, illicit cropping expanded as Government authorities eroded. In the late eighties illicit cultivation reached its peak, cannabis cultivation was estimated as high as 11,000 to 16,000 hectares during the peak years yielding up to 1,000 tons of cannabis resin. Opium poppy which was introduced in the eighties rapidly grew from 3,500 to 5,000 hectares yielding 30 to 50 tons (3-5 tons of heroin)
In 1991-1993 Lebanese and Syrian forces eradicated illicit cultivation in the Bekaa Valley. Subsequently Lebanon gradually transformed from a producer country to a regional hub for cocaine and heroin trafficking.
Since 1990, an increasing amount of illicit drug laboratories in the Syrian controlled area were reported to be processing opium from South-west Asia. The actual size and processing capacity of these laboratories remains disputed and they are referred to as "kitchen labs." In 1994, however, these laboratories were reported to convert between 1 and 2 tons of cocaine base imported from Latin America, into cocaine hydrochloride.
Lebanon is a transit country for cocaine (mainly from Colombia), and for heroin (from Turkey via Syria). Some minor amounts of heroin may be processed in remote side valleys of the Bekaa Valley - areas which are difficult to control for the Syrian and Lebanese armies
The record seizures of almost 40 tons of cannabis resin in 1994 have levelled off to 3.7 and 4.9 tons in 1995-1996. This may be due to a depletion from the stocks held from high production years in the early nineties. With regard to heroin, seizures were back to the 1993 level of approximately 50 kg in 1996 and have subsequently dropped to levels below 5kg per year. Cocaine seizures show a substantive increase for 1996 compared to 1995: 166.7 vs. 12.7 kg. 1998 seizures for cocaine were reported back at 11.9 kg. Long-term data for cocaine seizures have averaged higher, between 111.6 kg and 291.9 kg. Nevertheless, 1996 seizures are a ten-fold increase over 1991 and may therefore indicate a short-time diversification of the Lebanese trafficking groups into cocaine trafficking after the 1992/93 eradication campaign in the Bekaa Valley.
There are large communities of Lebanese expatriates living abroad, mainly in South America, but also in West Africa, Canada, the US and Europe. These extended family ties are often mentioned in connection with trafficking networks, particularly with regard to continued trafficking of cocaine from Latin America.
The high emigration rate of youth (40%) out of the Baalbek area may provide a fertile ground for trafficking networks based on family ties. There are also allegations that members of parliament and government officials have been involved in drug trafficking.
Some reports connect the rise of drug abuse with the civil warfare in Lebanon in the eighties. Cannabis abuse is reported as being quite common and there is a possibility of abuse of both cocaine and heroine starting in Lebanon, although no exact data exist. Some insights can be gained from a rapid assessment study on drug abuse in greater Beirut conducted in 1992.
The study established that drug abusers are mostly males in the age range of 25-34. Many abusers were reported to be reluctant to enter into treatment for fear of imprisonment6. These data are however and insufficient in terms of methodology. UNDCP therefore intends to undertake a new rapid assessment as a basis for targeted demand reduction efforts. Due to limited licit control systems, diversions of psychotropic substances from the licit market are rampant. Also this problem is part of the new UNDCP multi-sectoral project for Lebanon, which aims at improving the countries licit control systems.
The new drug law of March 1998 provides for a sentencing to treatment and rehabilitation for first-time offenders. The law increased the penalties for drug related crimes.
Currently, drug rehabilitation facilities are run by church-affiliated NGOs. Although parts of the treatment costs are re-funded, they lack the funds for improvement and necessary expansion of their services. Law enforcement authorities use education programmes in schools as the primary focus of their anti-drugs campaigns. However, these campaigns are not professionally designed and implemented.
The Drug Control Office (DCO) in the Ministry of Interior is responsible for combating drugs in the country. The DCO has been both a regular and an active participant in the Arab Office for Narcotic Affairs, which is part of the Arab Interior Ministers Council (AMIC). DCA has also been attending CND meetings regularly with an active delegation. It has also been responding positively to UNDCP’s and INCB’s requests for reporting. The DCO also played an instrumental and visible role in the Demand Reduction Forum held in Abu Dhabi (UAE) in February 1997. It has welcomed the establishment of the UNDCP Cairo Regional Office and has been co-operating with it on all drug-related matters. There are very cordial relations between the Office and the Government at the highest level.
Nominally, there is an inter-Ministerial Committee to oversee and coordinate drug control matters in the country attached to the Prime Minister’s Office. The Committee has not met during the past years. Its re-establishment is one of the strategic goals of UNDCP’s work in the country.
UNDCP has so far completed three operations amounting to US$ 5.82 million in Lebanon, and currently has one on-going operation, second Phase of Baalbeck-Hermel Regional Development Programme (US$ 1.69 million). This activity focussed on upgrading the Primary Health Care Services in the Bekaa Valley and generating alternative income sources for women and families.
A second multi-sectoral project (US$ 210,000) was signed in May 1999 and is awaiting allocation of funds. The project provides for provision of equipment for the law enforcement agency, the establishment of a licit control system, and the conducting of a rapid assessment study on the extent and patterns of drug abuse in Lebanon. Further assistance to Lebanon will form part of track II of UNDCP’s envisaged subregional drug control programme for the Middle East. In response to an initiative of the Cairo Regional Office, the Government will take part in the second Subregional Technical Consultations on Drug Control in the Middle East, held on 13 July 1999 in Cairo.
CICP has opened a Liaison Office in Lebanon and is implementing a project on juvenile justice and an anti-corruption project.
The US Government has removed Lebanon, together with Syria, from the list of major illicit drug-producing and drug-transit countries. However, there are indications for transit trafficking of cocaine and the existence of small laboratories in the Bekaa Valley for processing of Southwest Asian opium into heroin.
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