ECSTASY FIGURES SHOW NOT MUCH TO BE HAPPY ABOUT

Ireland has the highest use of ecstasy in Western Europe, along with the UK
and Spain, according to a major UN report.

The World Drug Report 2000 estimates that 1% of the population are taking
the dance drug every year.

Out of 22 countries in Western Europe, Ireland also boasts:

+ the third highest use of cannabis; + the fourth highest use of
stimulants; + the eighth highest use of opiates, including heroin; + the
fourth highest use of cocaine.

The report estimates that 180 million people worldwide are taking illegal
drugs 4.2% of people aged 15 and above.

Some 144 million people are using cannabis, 29 million are taking
amphetamine type stimulants, 14 million are using cocaine and 13.5 million
opiates, including 9 million using heroin.

Ireland has an estimated 13,500 heroin users.

While the consumption of drugs remains high, the report says there has been
considerable success in relation to heroin and cocaine the two main problem
drugs in terms of death, addiction and crime.

The global production of opium from which heroin is derived fell from 5,800
metric tonnes in 1999 to 4,800 in 2000.

This corresponds to a potential heroin output of 580 metric tonnes or
580,000kg in 1999 and 480 metric tonnes in 2000.

While the fall is significant, the quantity being produced is still greater
than the years between 1994 and 1998, indicating there is no shortage of
the drug.

This is all the more evident considering law enforcement agencies seize
less than a fifth of all heroin being shipped around the world.

However, the seizure rate has risen over the decade, from 10% in 1994 to
17% in 1998.

The report, drawn up by UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention
ODCCP), says two countries Afghanistan and Myanmar formerly Burma) are
responsible for 95% of the world's opium production.

Afghanistan which is ruled by the extremist Islamic Taleban group accounts
for 75% of all opium production.

The UN Office is now targeting Afghanistan in a bid to phase out opium
poppy cultivation in the central Asian state over the next five years.

The drug agency aims to provide education and health facilities and
employment outside agriculture in an effort to achieve this.

The World Drug Report says its 15 year alternative development programme
has reduced the area where heroin is produced from 272,500 hectares in 1994
to 217,200 hectares in 1999.

Pakistan one of the world's biggest opium producers in the 1980s has cut
its cultivation area from 5,800 hectares in 1994 to 284 hectares in 1999.

This has slashed the production of opium from 128 metric tonnes to nine
metric tonnes in the same period.

The UN report also says the cultivation and production of cocaine has
continued to fall since 1994.

Output of coca leaves fell from 319,300 metric tonnes in 1994 to 290,300
metric tonnes in 1999. This corresponds to a potential cocaine yield of 877
metric tonnes in 1994 and 765 metric tonnes in 1999.

The ODCCP says there has been considerable success in cutting coca leaf and
cocaine production in two of the three big world suppliers Bolivia and Peru.

Bolivia has cut its potential cocaine output from 255 metric tonnes in 1994
to 70 metric tonnes in 1999.

Likewise, Peru has cut its production from 421 metric tonnes to 175 metric
tonnes in the same period.

However, in Colombia, the production of cocaine has almost tripled from 201
metric tonnes in 1994 to 520 metric tonnes in 1999, making it by far the
biggest producer of cocaine in the world.

Figures show enforcement agencies have more success seizing cocaine than
heroin, confiscating almost half of all shipments.

Again, as with heroin seizures, the amount confiscated has increased over
the decade, from 37% of all cocaine in circulation in 1994 to 46% in 1998.

The report puts successes in cutting cultivation and production of heroin
and cocaine down to a "get serious" approach on the part of most major coca
and opium poppy producing countries.

Due to this, production is confined to fewer countries Afghanistan, Myanmar
and Colombia being the main ones making it easier to target and secure
further cuts.

The report found the strongest growth in trafficking in the 1990s was in
amphetamine type substances.

It noted that while production of the main drugs has gone down and seizures
have gone up, trafficking has globalised with a proliferation of
trafficking routes.