UN WATCHDOG SAYS DRUG SALES BOOMING IN CYBERSPACE

VIENNA - The United Nations narcotics watchdog said
on Wednesday the use of the Internet and other new technologies by
drug traffickers was complicating the struggle against the illegal
drug trade and narcotics abuse. In its 2001 annual report, the
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said that narcotics were
being sold over the Internet, often with the aid of private chat rooms
protected by firewalls impenetrable to law enforcers.

There were also jurisdictional problems created by cross-border
criminal activity in cyberspace, exacerbated by the failure of some
countries to adopt legislation on cybercrime.

"The INCB is particularly concerned that countries without adequate
legislation against crime involving new technologies may become
sanctuaries," the board said in the report.

Examples of cyber drug sales included reports from the Czech Republic
that narcotics purchases were agreed online at Internet cafes or via
mobile phones. Dutch companies were using the web to sell cannabis
seeds and derivatives around the world.

"The INCB is particularly concerned that young people are at risk from
drug dealers in cyberspace using the Internet."

The report said drug traffickers were using Internet banking to
launder drug money, while online pharmacies were making
prescription-only drugs readily available.

The INCB said it was worried by the increase in intravenous heroin use
in Africa, which it believed would abet the spread of HIV/AIDS
infection on the continent.

In South Africa alone, intravenous heroin use had increased 40 percent
over the last three years.

In North America, cocaine abuse appeared to be stabilising, although
heroin abuse among young people was on the rise.

After Afghanistan's former Taliban government banned the cultivation
of opium in 2000, Myanmar became the world's top illicit opium
producer last year. A prolonged drought also reduced Afghanistan's
2001 opium output, the report said.

The board said Afghanistan was still a key country in the global opium
trade and that after the war large quantities of opiates were released
from illicit stocks.

Throughout all of South Asia, heroin abuse is increasing, it said, and
there had been a definite shift away from smoking and inhaling the
drug toward injecting it.

Heroin abuse was an increasing problem in central and eastern Europe,
which remained a popular transit zone for drug traffickers.
Intravenous heroin abuse was contributing to a rise in HIV and
Hepatitis C infections in the region.

The board also urged countries to resist increasing calls for the
legalisation of cannabis, saying it would be a "historical mistake" to
treat it like alcohol or tobacco.