STUDY FINDS DIFFERENT DRUGS OF CHOICE IN NEW AND OLD WORLDS

UNITED NATIONS -- An international antidrug agency reports that people
in North and South America consume large amounts of
performance-enhancing drugs and stimulants, commonly called "uppers,"
while Europeans are the world's top users of so-called downers, or
stress-reducing drugs. Those were among the trends discussed in the
annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board, an
independent panel that oversees U.N. drug-control treaties.

The board is responsible for monitoring and promoting the compliance
of signatory countries in controlling 116 drugs and 111 psychotropic
substances, a category that includes hallucinogens, stimulants and
depressants.

The report, issued last month, noted that there was no clear-cut
explanation for the differences in usage between Europe and the
Americas. But it speculated they could be linked to such factors as
culture, the effects of advertising and differences in doctor-patient
relationships. Noting the tendency of Americans, particularly in the
United States, to make heavy use of a wide range of
performance-enhancing drugs -- from muscle-building steroids to
Ritalin, used to treat attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity in
children, to Viagra, the anti-impotence drug -- the report said: "Such
high use . . . could be at least partly explained by a prevalent sense
of competition. Use of these drugs seems linked to culture and lifestyle.

"In the Americas, particularly in the United States,
performance-enhancing drugs are given to children to boost school
performance or help them conform with the demands of school life," the
report said. "They are also taken by adults to achieve the desired
body image, boost athletic prowess and social skills or enhance sexual
performance."

Americans' use of stimulants, particularly amphetamine-type substances
for dieting and methylphenidate substances, such as Ritalin, amounts
to an annual total of 330 million daily doses, compared with a total
of about 65 million daily doses in all other parts of the world, the
report says.

The report found no evidence that life in Europe is more stressful
than in the Americas. Nevertheless, it said, stress-reducing drugs,
called benzodiazepines, were used by as much as 10 percent of the
population in some European countries, with people older than 65 the
heaviest users.

It said: "Many Europeans in this age group have retired and no longer
suffer professional stress, but may use the drugs to cope with
isolation or threatening changes in life routine." The report also
noted the board's opinion that the debate about medicinal use of
marijuana had been characterized "by ignorance, emotion and propaganda
on all sides," and it recommended increased scientific research to
better determine whether cannabis is beneficial in alleviating the
unpleasant effects of various illnesses.