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BP: NARCOTICS / HUGE JOINT EFFORT T



June 8, 1998


                                     



              NARCOTICS / HUGE JOINT EFFORT TO DESTROY
                                 NETWORK

              Drugbusters to
              crackdown on
              worldwide scourge

              UN meeting to unite countries in battle

              Nusara Thaitawat

              Drugbusters from across the world were gathering in New
              York today for the biggest ever anti-narcotics meeting.

              Hopes are high that the experts will come away with concrete
              plans to tackle the worldwide scourge of narcotics rather than a
              lot of paperwork and ears ringing with rhetoric, but with little
              action.

              The special session on the World Drug Problem by the United
              Nations General Assembly opens today.

              Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the UN International Drug
              Control Programme (UNDCP) in Vienna, said there were many
              reasons for optimism.

              "A politically more cooperative international climate devoid of
              the East-West and North-South ideological divides;
              sophisticated technology such as satellite monitoring systems;
              and the accumulated knowledge of the international community in
              drug control activities," were among them, he said.

              Christian Kornevall, who heads the UNDCP regional centre for
              East Asia in Bangkok, said past arguments between East and
              West and North and South as to whether suppliers or consumers
              were to blame, were no longer valid.

              "The West and the North are no longer just consumers but also
              producers and traffickers, while the East and the South are no
              longer just producers and traffickers, but consumers. All sides
              share the same problems now," he said.

              During one and a half years of preparations for the special
              session, no country had objected to "bold objectives" within a
              definite timeframe, nor to addressing the complex drug problem
              from within their own societies.

              Demand reduction, previously sensitive due to sovereignty and
              nationalistic sentiments, was considered one of the most urgent
              issues to be addressed.

              Even the United States, which is the biggest market for all types
              of illicit drugs, but whose past anti-drug efforts focussed mainly
              on cutting supplies and law enforcement, had agreed to redirect
              its energy to addressing the complex question of what motivated
              people to take drugs.

              For the first time ever governments will officially adopt a
              common set of principles for reducing the demand for drugs and
              have in place improved programmes by 2003. Governments
              wanted to achieve a "significant and measurable" reduction by
              2008.

              US President Bill Clinton will pledge a 50 percent cut in demand
              in the US by 2007, a year ahead of the set targets to underline
              his government's commitment.

              Five other key issues to be looked at by the meeting include
              precursor chemicals, amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS),
              judicial cooperation, money laundering, elimination of illicit crops
              and alternative development.

              In addition, two action plans will be adopted: eradication of illicit
              drug crops and alternative development, and against ATS and
              their precursors.

              A political declaration will get governments to set improved drug
              demand reduction programmes; implement an action plan against
              ATS and their precursors; adopt measures to expand judicial
              cooperation and law enforcement concerning extradition, mutual
              legal assistance, transfer of proceedings, controlled delivery, illicit
              traffic by sea, and other forms of cooperation and training by
              2003.

              By this date governments will also adopt national legislation in
              line with the 1988 drug convention concerning the seizure of drug
              money and establish principles upon which further anti-money
              laundering measures should be based.

              By 2008, governments are to achieve the simultaneous reduction
              of both illicit drug supply and demand; have a significant
              reduction in the diversion of precursor chemicals and in the
              production, traffic and abuse of ATS.

              To ensure these targets are met, the UNDCP is will follow up
              with a 10-year global plan worth some US$3.8 billion, known as
              SCOPE, including $3 billion for Latin America and $369 million
              for Southeast Asia.




                                     




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