UN: World Popping More
Pills, Growing More Heroin
Excerpt By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters Health

The use of synthetic drugs like ecstasy is booming among the party-goers of the rich world, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The UN International Narcotics Control Board also said Afghanistan was back as top producer of opium used for heroin, making some 3,500 tons in 2002, 100 tons more than in 2001.

"Synthetic drugs like ecstasy could become the main illicit drugs of the future," it said in its report for 2002.

"The INCB has therefore launched a major initiative to stop the chemicals needed to make synthetic drugs such as ecstasy from reaching clandestine laboratories where they are made."

Popular synthetic drugs stimulate the central nervous system and research indicates they cause irreversible brain damage, the INCB said.

These drugs are difficult to control as they can be made cheaply and easily anywhere in the world provided manufacturers can get the necessary chemicals from legal manufacturers or by recruiting companies to illicitly produce the ingredients.

There are no clear estimates of the volume of synthetic drug trafficking, though the INCB said "large seizures of such drugs indicate that there is a constant supply and high availability."

THE TROUBLE WITH AFHGANISTAN

The UN had high hopes for Afghanistan after a US military strike toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.

The Taliban had banned opium cultivation in a country that was long the top opium producer, making Myanmar the new leader.

Despite hopes that democratic reforms and personal loans could induce Afghan farmers to commit long-term to legal crops, the Afghan opium industry is booming again.

"There were a lot ideas and optimism about Afghanistan," INCB Secretary Herbert Schaepe told a news conference in the Austrian capital. "Unfortunately we have seen the contrary."

He said the loan idea never got off the ground as farmers focused on the quicker and better profits from opium production.

With the increased supply of heroin from Afghan opium, there also has been an increase in opiate addictions in the region.

"Opiate addiction rates in Iran and Pakistan continue to be among the highest in the world," the report said.

Directly linked with intravenous use of heroin and other drugs is the problem of soaring HIV infections, especially in Asia and eastern Europe.

"Most intravenous drug users are infected with HIV in central Asia, Russia and parts of Ukraine," Schaepe said.

The report concluded that while there may be short-term profits for developing countries in the production of illicit drugs, poorer nations get short shrift in the end.

"The bulk of the profits from the illicit drug trade are made in developed countries," it said.

Overall, illicit drug production appeared to result in lower economic growth and higher crime and violence.

Reference Source 89

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