Overview of the Drug Control Situation
There are at present no reports on illicit cultivation or illicit production of drugs in Syria. However, Syria controls the Lebanon's Bekaa Valley which was a major opium poppy and cannabis production area until Syrian and Lebanese forces implemented eradication campaigns in 1991-1992. No significant cultivation has been reported in this area recently.
 More recent data show significant seizures of cannabis resin for 1996 (1,57 tons). Longer range data series indicate average seizures for cannabis resin and cannabis herb as declining to averages around 1,5 tons after a peak for cannabis resin seizures of 121,8 tons in 1991. The same declining trend to a 10% level after significant seizures in 1991 and 1992 (78,4 kg; 98,9 kg) can be observed for heroin. This probably reflects the collapse of trafficking after the 1992 eradication campaigns in Lebanon.
Syria is considered to be one of the significant countries in the Middle East region for drug trafficking. It is used as a transit country for trafficking from Lebanon and Turkey. Cocaine also enters Syria from Latin America en route to Lebanon for processing and re-routing to Western Europe and North America. Seizures of fenetylline in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey indicate the continuation of transit trafficking from Europe to the Gulf States.'
The report of the Syrian delegation to the 1997 demand reduction forum for the Middle East reported 1945 male and 14 female registered drug addicts for 1996, which would suggest a slight increase over 1989 data. Other sources also referred to an increase in inhalant abuse. Figures provided by the Syrian Government to a UNDCP mission in 1992 are considerably higher: 3,100 registered cannabis addicts, 350 heroin addicts, and less than 20 cocaine addicts. The Syrian Government also stated that it does not consider drug abuse a big problem in the country.
Syria is party to and has ratified all three international drug control conventions. In 1994 UNDCP implemented a project on legal and drug law enforcement assistance to Syria with a total budget of US$ 141,250. The project enhanced the countries legal and institutional capacity by provision of training and equipment, including the establishment of a data base for intelligence gathering. At present, there are no ongoing technical co-operation activities of UNDCP in Syria.
After ten years of continuous de-certification, the US Government has removed Syria, together with Lebanon, from the 1997 list of major illicit drug producing and drug transit countries. 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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