SUBSTANCE ABUSE SLOWING GLOBALLY: UN

THE once-predicted global epidemic of drug abuse is being brought
under control, even though opium production is up in Afghanistan,
cocaine consumption is rising in Europe and trafficking is growing in
Africa, the United Nations has found.

"Recent data show that the runaway train of drug addiction has slowed
down," the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime,
Antonio Maria Costa, said after the agency's annual drug report was
released on Monday.

"For almost all drugs -- cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines
- -- there are signs of overall stability, whether we speak of
production, trafficking or consumption.

"We have some pretty robust evidence that containment, a word we
first used in 2004, is becoming a trend, though we need in the next
few years to prove that it is statistically and logically strong.

"It still could be a fluke, but we hope to prove that it's now cyclical."

NEW YORK TIMES