REPORT: DRUG MAKING HARMS POOR NATIONS

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Far from making poor countries rich, illicit drug
production keeps most people in developing countries trapped in poverty,
says a United Nations report being released Wednesday.

The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board -- an independent
U.N. body that monitors the global drug situation -- called the idea that
countries grow rich through the production of illegal drugs a dangerous myth.

"Generally, only 1 percent of the profits remains in the country of
origin," Rainer Wolfgang Schmidt, a member of the INCB's board, told
reporters. "Most money is made from the distribution of the drugs in
developed countries."

Schmidt said that illicit drug production is a major factor in hindering
long-term economic growth and destroying the fabric of society.

"It leads to an increase in violent crime, and the rule of law is
compromised," he said. "Corruption distorts the climate for investment, and
conspicuous consumption by a small elite leads to inflation."

Despite being labor-intensive, drug production failed in reality to provide
widespread employment, according to the report. In Bolivia and Peru, only 3
percent of the population was employed in the illegal drug sector when
production was at its height in the late 1980s.

The report pointed to Afghanistan and the countries of Central Asia as
typical examples of the negative effects of production.

"Afghanistan is a prime example," Schmidt said. "As poppy growing has
increased, the economy has slowed down."

In the 1990s, drug production fueled civil strife and living standards
fell, the report says. In Pakistan and Iran, where poppy production was
significantly reduced, economic growth proved positive and more sustainable.

The change of regime in Afghanistan has done little to change the
situation, Schmidt added, and attempts by international agencies to address
the problem have been thwarted by increased fighting between local groups.

The report called on European governments to extend more aid to Afghanistan
to fight the problem and for the Afghan government to introduce tighter
controls on drug production.

"The drug problem has to be considered in the overall economic and
development context of a country ... and not just as a social problem," it
says.

Calling economic development critical in tackling the problem, the report
also called for greater international assistance for small-scale farmers to
help them switch from illicit drug production to growing legal crops.

In the United States, illegal drug prices have been forced up by shortfalls
in supply caused by increased security at airports and ports due to the
fight against terrorism. The United States continued to be home to the
highest number of drug users in the world, the INCB said; it did not offer
a figure.

The report warned that the perceived easing of drug legislation in Western
countries could send a misleading message to the rest of the world, often
leading young people to believe that drug usage was now legitimate.

Elsewhere, the report says illicit marijuana cultivation is widespread in
Africa, particularly in Morocco. Cocaine use is rising in almost all the
countries of southern and western Africa, particularly Nigeria and South
Africa, and these regions are being used as supply routes for cocaine
deliveries from South America to Europe and North America.

In Central America and the Caribbean, seizures of heroin and Ecstasy have
increased although drug trafficking in the region mostly involves marijuana
and cocaine, the report says; around 10 percent of passengers on flights
from Jamaica to Britain are reported by authorities to be smuggling drugs.

In Colombia, guerrilla and paramilitary groups retain control of drug
trafficking and are exchanging illicit drugs for firearms, although the
anti-drugs initiative Plan Colombia, supported by the United States, seized
more than 1,500 illicit drug laboratories and destroyed 55 clandestine
runways in 2001 alone, the report says.