THE UN'S DOWNER ON DRUGS

From The Economist Global Agenda

The United Nations is worried about resurgent opium production in
Afghanistan and soaring ecstasy use worldwide. But its ideas on how to deal
with the problem are attracting criticism

ONE of the few things that won international praise for Afghanistan's
fundamentalist former rulers, the Taliban, was their crackdown on the
growing of opium poppies. As a result, cultivation fell dramatically in
2001 and Afghanistan temporarily lost its traditional place as the world's
main supplier of the raw material for heroin. But after the American-led
toppling of the Taliban regime in the wake of the September 11th attacks,
Afghan farmers rushed to replant the lucrative crop. According to a report
this month from the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime, the
country's opium production is now back at the high levels of the 1990s (see
chart).

The annual report of another UN agency, the International Narcotics Control
Board (INCB), published on February 26th, urges richer countries to give
Afghanistan more aid to help it stamp out poppy growing. The report argues
that it was the growth of the opium trade that fuelled violent conflicts in
the country during the 1990s. The INCB, which monitors countries'
compliance with international drug-control treaties, also expresses alarm
that the abuse of synthetic amphetamines, such as ecstasy, is spreading
rapidly among nightclubbers all over the world, and reckons they could
eventually become the most widely used illegal substances. The INCB's
report urges countries to keep up their efforts to stamp out drugs
trafficking, and criticises moves towards liberalisation. However, a senior
UN human-rights official, Asma Jahangir, this week expressed his concern at
Thailand's current harsh crackdown on drugs dealers, in which its police
are suspected of extra-judicial killings of hundreds of suspects.

The Thai government claims most of the deaths have been due to drug gang
leaders murdering potential informants. Even so, the country's efforts to
stamp out drug cultivation and abuse are bearing a high cost in human
lives, as are those of Andean countries such as Bolivia, where the
government's attempts to stamp out coca production have contributed to a
resurgence of violent protests in the past two months. As the INCB's report
notes, Colombia has had some success with its big, American-funded plan to
eradicate the coca bush and thus reduce the supply of cocaine. But one of
the results has been a resurgence of cultivation in Bolivia and its spread
to Venezuela and Ecuador.

The INCB argues that, since the growers of opium and coca see only a
fraction of the profits from drugs trafficking, they could be weaned off
their dependence with a relatively small increase in rich countries'
foreign aid. It reckons the growers' annual incomes are equivalent to just
2% of existing aid budgets, or 3% of America's total spending on drug
control. However, there is not yet much evidence of lasting success from
programmes to encourage growers to switch to alternative, legal crops. The
INCB ties itself in knots arguing, on the one hand, that poor countries
earn little from the drugs trade, while on the other hand claiming that it
may cause so much "conspicuous consumption" that it causes inflation in
these countries. In Afghanistan and Myanmar, the report reckons, opium may
generate up to 15% of GDP, while coca may provide 3% of Colombia's national
income.

Many of the ill effects that the UN board's report attributes to the drugs
trade--such as corruption, violence and the resulting economic
disruption--may be largely due to it being illegal and therefore in the
hands of crime gangs. But the report laments the cautious steps towards
decriminalisation that some richer countries have taken. In particular, it
criticises Switzerland, which is liberalising the personal use of cannabis.
The Swiss authorities believe they can do this without infringing
international drug-control treaties but the INCB continues to insist
otherwise. It even criticises Canada and the Netherlands for authorising
the medical use of cannabis, calling on them and other countries to wait
for "conclusive" results from research into its medical efficacy. This
seems over-cautious to many experts. The Lancet, a British medical journal,
recently noted that "on the medical evidence available, moderate indulgence
in cannabis has little ill effect on health."

Agony over ecstasy In the longer term, perhaps a bigger threat to Afghan
poppy growers and Andean coca farmers than official attempts to put them
out of business is that drug users seem to be turning to amphetamine-based
chemicals such as ecstasy, which are manufactured in illegal laboratories.
As the INCB reports, ecstasy use is spreading from the nightclubs of rich
western countries to southern Africa, Central America and the Caribbean,
China, Thailand and Indonesia. Since much of it is thought to be made in
western Europe, this represents a reversal in the flow of the drugs trade,
from developed to developing countries.

Despite the discouraging news it has to report, the INCB takes heart from
the fact that more countries are signing up to the various drug-control
treaties. Thailand, Israel, Eritrea and Rwanda recently signed the most
important one, the 1988 UN convention on drugs trafficking. This means that
166 of the world's 192 nations are now signed up, with the UN pressing hard
for the remaining 26 to follow suit. Nevertheless, there is little sign
overall of any reduction in drugs production or consumption. And the heavy
toll--both in violence and corruption of public institutions--that results
from criminalisation remains evident across the world, from Bangkok to Rio
de Janeiro.