Annual report on Worldwide Drug Situation

March 17th, 2000.

This year's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) annual report, released on 23 February 2000, highlights the need for a coordinated effort to ensure adequate licit supply of narcotic drugs for medical purposes, especially in developing countries. In a world of growing illicit drug taking, coupled with the complacent attitudes of some authorities, it is of enormous concern to the Vienna-based INCB that people for whom drugs would be of great benefit such as those experiencing pain in the later stages of cancer, have no access to well established pain relievers such as morphine and other opiates.

In contrast to this lack of pain relieving medicines in developing countries is the problem of overmedication in the developed world. The high consumption of amphetamines and other nervous system stimulants in the Americas and the excessive reliance on benzodiazepine-type hypnotics and stimulants in Europe is also a major concern for the INCB.

Lack of regulation, insufficient information and means to assess reliable estimates of the actual needs of countries on the one hand, combined with aggressive marketing strategies on the part of pharmaceutical companies and improper medical practices on the other hand, account, according to the Board, for a situation of simultaneous undersupply of much needed narcotic drugs in developing countries and an overuse of psychotropic substances in developed countries.

The Board urges Governments to adopt a flexible, more humanitarian approach that relies on a functioning drug-supply management system that conforms with existing international rules and procedures but at the same time is capable of ensuring the availability of controlled drugs for medical purposes especially for developing countries and in special situations such as humanitarian emergencies.

Other issues discussed in the Board's annual report include the use of government-sanctioned drug injection rooms-- so called "shooting" galleries -- by addicts in some developed countries. Such establishments are not in accordance with the drug control conventions and the Board regards them as places where breaking the law goes unpunished. As an alternative the Board calls for Governments to set up treatment centres where addicts can receive properly supervised medical treatment and prescribed medication.

The increasing abuse of cannabis among the young is an especially alarming development, states the report.

Growing numbers of young abusers and the easy availability of highly potent strains of the drug, together with the lenient attitudes of some Governments, makes the fight against cannabis even more important.

The Board is keen to correct the image of cannabis as a "harmless" drug and reiterates its call for scientific, not anecdotal, evidence of its medical benefits. If cannabis were proven to be of medical usefulness, it would be treated in the same way as other drugs, such as morphine, with its medical use strictly supervised by the medical authorities.

European Cities Against Drugs Vol VI, Nr 32. March 12, 2000