EU sees no progress on global drug problem in past decade

Mar 10, 2009, 16:13 GMT

Vienna - There was no evidence that the global drug problem has been reduced in the past decade, despite increased efforts to help addicts and fight traffickers, according to a study by the European Commission released Tuesday in Vienna.

Although the report did not contain recommendations, it painted a bleak picture of global drug policy, saying it 'had no more than a marginal positive influence.'

The European Commission published its findings ahead of a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs starting Wednesday, which is expected to review the past decade and come up with a policy declaration for the next one.

'These findings show that the political declaration to be adopted in Vienna this week should not simply restate the objectives we adopted 10 years ago,' European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot said in a statement, but should instead take an approach based on past evidence.

In 1998, the UN General Assembly pledged to 'significantly reduce' the demand for and supply of illicit drugs by 2008.

Although the global situation had improved somewhat in richer countries, the drug problem has become more complex overall, the report said.

For example, drug prices have fallen by as much as 30 per cent since 1998 in most Western countries, the study found, despite tougher sentencing of cocaine and heroine dealers in some of the West's drug markets.

Production and trafficking control policies had led to transfers of drug activities to other countries, such as the shift of Bolivian and Peruvian cocaine production to Colombia, the report said.

Drug treatment efforts did not reduce drug use, it said, as there were few effective prevention programmes.

However, the European Commission found that policies regarding health services for drug users were converging. It noted that countries such as China and Iran now allowed the use of substitute drugs for opiate addicts.