6th March, 2008

Afghanistan now accounts for 93 per cent of of the global illicit market for opiates, according to the International Narcotics Control Board.

Releasing it’s annual report this week, the INCB called on Asian governments to establish and strengthen controls over the movement of precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of heroin and noted that some 193,000 hectares in Afghanistan was now devoted to illegal cultivation of opium poppies.

It said Afghanistan has also become a major source for cannabis resin or hashish in the recent past with an estimated 70,000 hectares devoted to cannabis cultivation.

Other key findings include:
• West Africa was developing into the major smuggling route for cocaine from Latin America into Europe;
• the abuse of cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants is among the highest in the world in Oceania;
• cannabis and heroin are being increasingly trafficked and abused in South Asia;
• ninety per cent of cocaine smuggled into the US comes from Colombia while an estimated 6.4 million people in the US are said to abuse prescription drugs containing
and internationally controlled substances; and
• while cannabis remains the most prevalent drug in Europe, the area also remains a major source of amphetamines.

Meanwhile the INCB have said that lenient treatment of celebrity’s found to have used illegal drugs could undermine wider social efforts to reduce the demand for drugs.

~ www.incb.org

- DAVID ADAMS