Opening Statement
Antonio Maria Costa
Executive Director
15 March 2004
I have the pleasure of welcoming you all to the 47th session of the Commission. I especially congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, and the Members of the Bureau on your election.
One year ago, 146 Governments and 75 Ministers unanimously reaffirmed their commitment to implement the UNGASS drug control strategy by the posted date: 2008.
During the past 12 months, my Office has worked hard to impart new momentum to our joint undertaking. The UNODC assessment is contained in three documents before the Commission: the survey of efforts to promote prevention and treatment (CN.7/04-2); the review of measures to control supply (CN.7/04-4); and the report on UNODC support to assisted countries (CN.7/04-9). I hope you concur that these texts are unusually clear, readable and well documented: in them, nothing is embellished, nothing swept under the carpet.
We can appraise the situation only up to 2001 or 2002, as there are inevitable lags in reporting. The three papers show that, in the first few years of the UNGASS strategy, important drug control results were achieved. Although some outcomes were clearly unsatisfactory (the result of social changes and lags in the implementation of agreed-upon measures), the assessment submitted to Ministers in April 2003 remains largely valid today: important progress is being made towards the still distant goals of UNGASS. Moreover, major cultural and attitudinal shifts have occurred in many countries in relation to drugs. This suggests that better, broader and faster results can only be achieved if the entire society is actively involved in countering substance abuse complementing and supplementing the work of specialists dedicated to drug prevention, treatment and law enforcement. I shall come back to this point later on, to call for greater societal synergy against drug abuse.
(I) Supply of plant-based illicit drugs
A well-documented, sizeable reduction of coca and opium cultivation has taken place in the Andean countries and in Asia, to the point that these illicit cultivations now occur mainly in two countries only: Colombia and Afghanistan.
A. With regard to the coca bush, after the major decline of cultivation recorded in Peru and Bolivia in the 90s, in the current decade encouraging developments have taken place in Colombia, where the area under illicit cultivation has fallen significantly.
B. With regard to opium poppy, illicit cultivation has continued to decline, and significantly so, in the Golden Triangle: if current achievements are sustained, we may expect opium to disappear from Myanmar and Laos fields, having vanished long ago from China and Thailand.
As result of wars, poverty and insurgency, Afghanistan, as we all know, has become the worlds largest producer of narcotics. Dismantling its opium economy with the instruments of democracy, rule of law and development will be a long and complex process. I hope that the forthcoming Conference in Berlin will place drug control at the centre of initiatives to improve stability in Afghanistan, and pledge the resources necessary to implement the counter-narcotic policy.
One further point needs attention with regard to opium. As long as world demand persists at over 4000 tons of opium a year and trading profit therefore remain high (1gr of heroin sells at $1 at the source, but retails in Europe at $100), illicit opium will be produced somewhere whether in Afghanistan or not. The conclusion is clear: supply control measures must be accompanied by efforts to curb abuse.
C. With regard to cannabis: cultivation worldwide has never been measured. It has therefore been impossible to pass judgement on output trends or on the result of policy. Important progress was made in late 2003 when, in collaboration with the Government, UNODC produced the first cannabis survey of Morocco, which is possibly the worlds leading producer. UNODC is now progressing with plans to appraise cannabis cultivation elsewhere, fully aware that harvests in the southern hemisphere are complemented by growing crops in the north.
(II) Supply of chemicals: ATS and precursors
Mother nature has provided humanity with important medicinal herbs. Yet, drugs cause major health damage when natures offerings are manipulated, either by the deployment of chemical agents (precursors), or by artificial products (ATS, amphetamine-type stimulants). Because of the economics of supply and the fashion of demand, man-made products will certainly replace natures at an increasing pace. While the implication of this phenomenon has not yet reached either the farmers in Afghanistan or the campesinos in Colombia, it did not escape the attention of the criminal groups involved in trafficking. Moreover, I fear that the shift of drug abuse towards synthetic substances has not yet been fully understood by many of the institutions in charge of drug control (although the meritorious groups that dedicate themselves to addicts have noted this dangerous shift and related suffering).
I am pleased that the Commission has chosen the question of precursors controls as one of its Thematic Debates. UNODC provides scientific support to trace the origin of these chemicals, and sponsor several precursors control projects.
I take this opportunity to commend Governments and the INCB for their successful efforts in Operation Purple (for the control of potassium permanganate, cocaines main precursor) and Operation Topaz (for the control of acetic anhydride, heroins main precursor). The recent launch of Project Prism, to curb trade in the main chemical precursors for ATS, is another significant development.
Under the impact of easy supply (unconstrained by geography and climate) and low cost (that favours demand among the poor), the rise of ATS tells a particularly worrisome story.
Since 1998 all indicators -- seizures of laboratories, equipment, precursors and finished products as well as reports about abuse show that ATS market changing in depth, breadth and shape. Current production is estimated at 500 tons/year, it is growing in size and in sophistication. More laboratories have been dismantled worldwide since 2000 than ever before. Clandestine labs are located mostly in North America (the worlds largest producer and consumer), in Europe (where the large side manufacturing was noted by the 2003 INCB report), and in Asia (where Myanmar is the largest producer, with precursors supplied by neighbouring countries).
ATS trafficking is also increasing, partly in response to drug control efforts, partly as a result of the dynamic of demand but especially because too many people, lacking knowledge or scruples, continue to proclaim that ATS is un-harmful. I therefore applaud the Commissions decision to include synthetic drugs in the thematic debate and look forward to further guidance on this crucial issue.
(III) Demand and drug abuse
In 2003, assisted by UNODC, Member States continued to give increased priority to drug demand reduction, by:
Such institutional developments are crucial; however, we cannot stop here, merely at processes. We need better and more data, the absence of which is forcing many governments to pilot drug policy as in conditions of permanent fog. In particular, we need to achieve concrete results such as lower addiction rates, with well publicized levels of achievement. In drug control, as with any other challenges, results build upon results.
Because some important achievements have been made, governments need to pay attention to both history (namely, the lessons learned), and to geography (namely, the successes elsewhere). Now we know what works in drug control and what does not. We have evidence as to which policy instruments are effective, and what is pure rhetoric. We should also learn from related community efforts to control other scourges. Think of the successful, ongoing awareness campaigns in areas like environmental degradation, or tobacco-related health damages, or the danger posed by drunken-driving. In these areas, most societies have decided that the risks and threats are unacceptably high and that something must be done. The health danger caused by narcotics, unfortunately, does not seem yet to qualify for the social emergency list.
In the past few years, un-evenness in drug control efforts has produced uneven results. On the positive side, we see a notable reduction in cocaine and heroin abuse in some major markets in North America and Western Europe. Australias success in curbing addiction to almost all substances is remarkable. Treatment facilities are growing everywhere and drug legislation is being reconsidered in many countries. New initiatives are being undertaken, carefully monitored by the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB), whose judgement regarding consistency with the drug control Conventions is ultimate. Many developing countries, particularly in Africa, are devoting scarce resources to oppose cannabis cultivation, trafficking and abuse showing a more resolute attitude than many of the richer countries.
On the negative side, drug abuse is growing in Eastern Europe, Russia, in the other CIS States and in China. Cocaine and heroin abuse are also growing along the drug trafficking routes in Africa, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Some interesting pointers have already emerged from this information:
If we put together income and social trends, public health factors, detection and treatment approaches, with perceptions and the need to show results, one message emerges, loud and clear: the greater and the wider the commitment of society to drug control, the greater the likelihood of success. With these factors in mind, it is possible to calibrate an operational map for the remaining years of the UNGASS period.
(I) HIV/AIDS and drug abuse
Drug abuse by injection threatens to create a major pandemic, especially if, and when, blood-borne diseases spread into the general public. I am glad to see that the Commission will address the HIV/AIDS question, and address it in the context of drug abuse, as a special agenda item. This is of crucial importance. The General Assembly has established the reduction of HIV/AIDS as one of the Millennium Development Goals. We must all combine our efforts to fight drug abuse with similar efforts to fight HIV, especially in Eastern Europe, the Far East, the Caribbean and in some parts of Africa.
Injecting drug abusers number over 12 million and in some countries up to 90% of them are HIV positive. UNODC together with other UN organizations, is addressing this enormous threat. I welcome the colleagues from UNAIDS to the Commission, especially in view of the fact that UNODC will Chair the UNAIDS Committee of Co-sponsoring Organizations, starting in July and for one year. Our goal is to ensure that the international community gives adequate attention to major problems we face:
(II) Curbing demand: the tobacco model
Contradictions have not been rare in human history; paradoxes have been even plentiful in the history of substance abuse. One is particularly striking.
On the one hand in a few developed countries there are small, vocal and well-funded groups advocating the relaxation of controls over illicit drug consumption. These pro-drug lobbies argue, for example, that cannabis and ATS are a soft drug and, therefore, compliance with the international conventions should also be soft. In a small number of super-rich countries every other need having been met these views have had an impact on policy: recent INCB reports have addressed the issue of non-compliance to treaty obligations. I salute the Boards determination to protect the international legal assets embodied in the Conventions.
On the other hand a global consensus has emerged in favour of tightening regulations for tobacco, the most widely consumed (licit) substance. This process began in the industrialized countries with the banning of smoking in ever growing numbers of places, and has led to the 2003 adoption of the landmark WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. We can draw some important lessons from the half-century developments that eventually led to the WHO Convention.
First, efforts to reduce dangerous substances abuse take time to achieve tangible results.
Second, just as in the case of tobacco, a much broader approach to preventing drug abuse is needed, involving society at large: schools, sports centres, media, work places, the places of faith, the entertainment centres (discos) and, above all, the family. This consensus driven approach has produced tangible results in the area of tobacco control: smokers are on the defence, as the public support for banning smoking is practically everywhere. Not the same for drug addiction.
Third, the impact of measures to curb demand for illicit drugs will be enhanced if these measures are driven by the global consensus that illicit drugs are dangerous, unhealthy substances to be kept under social control. Unfortunately, todays pro-drug lobby has become part of the problem: it is quite powerful, in some cases driven by venture capitalists counting on the money that could be made if cannabis (once legalized) would replace tobacco (now close to be outlawed).
In conclusion, the whole of society has to be mobilized, as a society-wide commitment to drug control and to the objectives of the UN Conventions is a prerequisite for sustained success in prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. This mobilization of civil society is especially of critical importance in the global efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS from spreading as a result of injecting drug abuse.
(III) Protecting society: the alcohol (drunken-driving) model
This other point is about prevention, and especially about the fact that prevention work against substance abuse needs to be made synergetic, with an early start. The focus on young people is fundamental: teenagers acquire skills and habits central to their future development, and they establish behavioural patterns for adult life. In prevention terms, these years constitute a period of both opportunity and risk.
Reducing experimentation is likely to reduce correspondingly the numbers of individuals that will go on to develop sustained and problematic abuse patterns.
UNODC has recently demonstrated that addressing the issue of substance abuse at the workplace can be profitable: early intervention reduces accidents and absenteeism. It also increases productivity and competitiveness. Why not the same with schools? What about the roads?
Measures introduced to prevent alcohol abuse could be used to prevent drug abuse. The road code against drunken driving, for example, has generally improved safety. Yet, society does not seem to have the same vigilance about driving under the influence of drugs, although related road accidents are no less serious.
(IV) The broader picture: drugs, crime and terrorism
Until recently UNODC work was confined to fighting drug addiction on both the demand (prevention and treatment) and supply (law enforcement) sides.
Two new developments have emerged: the relation between drug trafficking and organized crime on the hand, and the impact on terrorist financing. Indeed, the spreading of crime, corruption and terrorism collectively pose a threat to peace, security and sustainable development: hence policies, whether nationally or internationally, have to be developed and implemented. The INCB has, in its annual report this year, highlighted the impact of drugs, crime and violence and their relevance for drug control.
The refocussing of the Offices operational priorities were guided by the principle of ensuring a greater balance between prevention and law enforcement, establishing partnerships with civil society and with other institutions part of the United Nations, the World Bank, OSCE and alike. Given the modest size of our resources, the achievement of more substantive results will be contingent on UNODCs capacity to build strategic partnership with others.
There is a need to strengthen our knowledge of issues, starting from the information contained in the biennial reporting as follow-ups to UNGASS. While it is important to know how many new laws were enacted and how many new hectares of illicit cultivations were eradicated, most importantly we need to know whether we are on target regarding results, first and foremost regarding trends on addiction. How can we help Member States gain a clear picture of whether abuse is stable, and in what direction is changing?
We are working hard to improve the governance, efficiency and transparency in the ways we do business. We are improving our human resources, starting from the re-organization of the Office, the redeployment of posts towards programme delivery, the re-profiling of Field Offices to ensure consistency of staff and budget with delivery volumes. And finally, we are making great strides to capitalizing on potential information technology to connect the field to headquarters and both to Permanent Missions here in Vienna and even to your capitals. Help us help you.
I thank you for your attention.