NET BECOMES DRUG PUSHERS' TOOL

DRUG pushers and consumers are using the Internet more and more to exchange
information on illegal substances, even publicising recipes on how to
manufacture narcotics, the head of the United Nations drug control office
said today. Pino Arlacchi, head of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime
Prevention, said the UN was "increasingly worried about the use of Web sites
and the Internet for propaganda of drugs manufacturing".

By searching one key word, "you receive advice on how to manufacture drugs,
you receive advice on where to find drugs, you receive a lot of extremely
dangerous information," Arlacchi told a news conference at UN headquarters
ahead of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on
Monday.

He refused to reveal the key word.

The Internet is being used to "expand the market" of consumers, Arlacchi
said, although the actual sale of illicit drugs online remains marginal.

Arlacchi said the issue would be addressed at an international meeting later
this year in Palermo, Italy, on expanding universal jurisdiction to Internet
crimes and money laundering.

Meanwhile, in a message for the international day against drug abuse, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised greater cross-border co-operation that
"is finally catching up with the global nature of the drug trade."

But "in this rapidly globalising world, the drug menace knows no boundaries.
It is restricted to no social class and is exclusive to no region. It is a
global problem with staggering economic and social costs," Annan said in the
message released today.

The secretary-general said the root of the problem - the demand for drugs -
had to be addressed.

"Young people need protection, support and guidance of their parents and
communities. They need role models to help them find a positive path - a
path without drugs - through the uneasy environment in which we live," the
secretary-general said.