UN panel examines strategies against global drug abuse

A United Nations expert panel is examining the interaction between supply and demand strategies against the global drug abuse problem during its two-week session, which opened today in Vienna.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the body monitoring worldwide drug abuse and trafficking, is also set to review a number of other related issues and developments, including the results of missions and technical visits the experts carried out in Indonesia, Portugal, Thailand and Timor-Leste, to obtain first-hand information on national drug control initiatives and on the implementation of the international drug control treaties in those countries.

During its eightieth session, set to run through 28 May, the Board will also review the extent to which the Governments of Egypt, Jamaica, Pakistan, Ukraine and Serbia and Montenegro have implemented recommendations made to them, pursuant to respective missions carried out by the experts during 2001.

The INCB, an independent body of 13 international experts, issues an annual report usually in late February on its findings in the field of worldwide drug abuse and trafficking, which also devotes special attention to a specific drug-related issue in its lead chapter.

The Vienna-based INCB is an independent body established by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to monitor Governments' compliance with the international drug control treaties. Its members are elected by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to serve in their individual capacities for a term of five years.