Illicit drug cultivation down, but mixed results on other narcotics goals – UN report

While substantial efforts have been made to eradicate illicit crops and develop alternatives in opium poppy and coca-growing countries, much remains to be done in the fight against the $322 billion world drug trade, according to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s latest report on the issue.

With the world drug market estimated by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to be larger than the gross domestic products of 90 per cent of the world's countries, the report urges greater law enforcement, asset confiscation, drug prevention, and alternative development efforts to prevent the re-emergence of illicit crops around the world.

The report is an update on how well Member States are meeting the goals of a 2004 General Assembly resolution entitled, “International cooperation against the world drug problem.”

Not including Afghanistan, dramatic reductions have been made in drug cultivation with illicit poppy opium growth in 2004 now reduced to 32 per cent of its 1994 levels. Illicit coca production was half its 1994 levels in 2003, the last year for which figures were available, the report said.

Efforts to provide alternative growth crops, and protect women and the poorest in the changeover to new cultivation systems have also shown progress in 2004, despite the fact that the programmes are underfinanced, and lack some of the essential technical and support mechanisms to keep going.

Most governments have adopted or updated their national drug programmes and control strategies since 2002, but there was mixed progress in demand reduction, prevention initiatives, measures to detect and reduce the manufacture of amphetamine type drugs, and the legal frameworks for controlling precursor drugs.

The report urged greater international cooperation, and called for better capacity building and monitoring in illicit crop cultivation, stronger laws to seize illegal assets, and better efforts to reduce drug dependency and demand among users.