U.N. estimates drug business equal to 8 percent of world trade

VIENNA, Austria (AP) Drug trafficking has become a $400 billionayear
business worldwide, equal to 8 percent of all trade, the United Nations said
today in its first comprehensive report on the illicit industry.

The report by the Viennabased U.N. International Drug Control Program
estimated that illegal drugs are bigger business than all exports of
automobiles and about equal to the worldwide trade in textiles.

Seizures of drugs have been rising for about a decade, and the United
Nations estimated that police now intercept 30 percent of all cocaine and 10
percent to 15 percent of heroin shipments. But demand and profits are so
high that police work has barely dented the business. Drug traffickers find
the risks worth taking.

``Profits on a mere fraction of the drugs successfully trafficked can cover
the costs of the lost cargo,'' the report said. Threequarters of all drug
shipments would have to be intercepted to seriously cut into the
profitability of the business, it said.

The 300page report was the first effort by the U.N. organization to detail
the worldwide drug business.

The world body said it hopes its broad description of the illicit industry
will help law enforcement agencies attack it more effectively.

Publication of the report comes at a time when SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan
is pressing the United Nations to get more deeply involved in the fight
against drugs and organized crime.

The U.N. report said the abuse of synthetic drugs, primarily stimulants, has
increased most rapidly.

Marijuana is the most widely used drug, the report said, with about 140
million users, or about 2.5 percent of the world population. However, it
estimated the number of users of synthetic stimulants at 30 million more
than use heroin and probably more than use cocaine.

It reported a high level of use of methamphetamine in North America, the Far
East and some Southeast Asian countries.

Use of marijuana and cocaine among U.S. eighthgrade students doubled
between 199194, it said without providing details, and the average first
use of marijuana was at 13 years old.

The estimated $400 billion annual revenue 8 percent of total global
exports of $4.95 trillion in 1995 was generated by an industry
encompassing poor farmers in Asia and South America, laboratories, an army
of recruits to run the drugs, and a hierarchy that reaps the profits.

International organized crime groups have plowed profits from other illegal
activities such as smuggling cigarettes and jewels into the drug business.
As the world financial network has expanded, money laundering has become
more professional and more global.

The report estimated profit margins for methamphetamine at 240 percent;
crack cocaine at 300 percent; and heroin at 100 percent. The average price
of a kilogram of raw opium in Pakistan is about $90 but sells for $290,000
in the United States.