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BP: NARCOTICS / HUGE JOINT EFFORT T
- Subject: BP: NARCOTICS / HUGE JOINT EFFORT T
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 20:22:00
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were to blame, were no longer valid.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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