REPORT SAYS DRUG CONTROL IS WORKING

But U.N. Study Warns of Trouble Spots Around World

Washington - Opium poppy cultivation was down 22% worldwide in 2005,
according to a study that the United Nations released Monday, part of
a mixed report card on global efforts to combat drug
trafficking.

Coupled with a stabilization of global markets for cocaine and
amphetamines, the 2006 World Drug Report says, "drug control is
working and the world drug problem is being contained."

Not all the news was good, however. The report also warns that cocaine
consumption in western Europe is reaching "alarming levels" and says
that global consumption of cannabis, the world's most popular drug,
continues to increase.

In addition, officials warn that there could be an upswing in opium
cultivation in Afghanistan, which is responsible for 89% of world
opium production. Because of continued political turmoil, poverty and
violence, Afghanistan's "drug situation remains vulnerable to
reversal," the report says. "This could happen as early as 2006."

Opium poppy cultivation decreased in Afghanistan for the first time
since 2001, when U.S. forces removed the Taliban from power.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime,
praised the "magnificent decline" in production of the opium poppy,
the plant used to make heroin.

The report attributes the decline in opium production to cutbacks in
Afghanistan, as well as a reduction in the so-called golden triangle
in Myanmar and Laos.

Despite the worldwide decrease in production, heroin abuse has
increased in the Milwaukee area over the past several years, and the
drug is becoming increasingly popular among people in their 20s and
teens, according to Erick Slamka, director of the Milwaukee High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

After years of rapid increases, the global market for amphetamine-type
stimulants - of which methamphetamine is the most popular - is
stabilizing because of increased international support in controlling
the precursor chemicals used to make the drug, the report says. But
the number of people seeking treatment for methamphetamine addiction
in North America increased more in the past year than for any other
drug.

According to top U.S. officials, marijuana abuse in America is also
still a major problem.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control
Policy, warned that there is still "a culture of denial" in this
country surrounding the dangers of the drug.

"We are not sending the message on cannabis that we are sending with
other drugs," he said. "It is not just a gateway (drug); it's a dead
end."