Today is International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking:

Community action vital to counter drug menace

By Pramod DE SILVA

Illicit drugs are a threat to society, especially to the younger generation. Illegal narcotics with a street value of millions of dollars are smuggled across borders to feed the drugs trade the world over. Drug addiction has become a major social problem in most countries including Sri Lanka. More attention has to be focused on this grave problem at international level.

Afghan forces destroying opium fields

It is with this aim in mind that the United Nations in 1987 designated June 26 (today) as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The day raises awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society at national and global levels. It has been held annually since 1988 on June 26, a date chosen to commemorate Lin Zexu's dismantling of the opium trade in Humen, Guandong, just before the First Opium War in China. The observance was instituted by a UN General Assembly resolution on December 7, 1987.

Following the resolution, the years 1991 to 2000 were heralded as the United Nations Decade Against Drug Abuse. In 1998 the UN General Assembly adopted a political declaration to address the global drug problem. The declaration expresses UN members' commitment to fighting the problem.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has, over the years, been actively involved in launching these campaigns to mobilise support for drug control. According to the UNODC, nearly 200 million people are using illicit drugs such as cocaine, cannabis, hallucinogens, opiates and sedative hypnotics worldwide.

UN report

The UN's World Drug Report, unveiled on Thursday, puts the value of the illegal drug trade at over US$325 billion a year. Launched simultaneously in London and New York, this annual report highlights developments across the global drug market to explain the factors that drive the world's consumption, production and trafficking of illicit drugs. (Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade involving the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws.)

This year's theme for the world anti-drugs day, 'Global action for healthy communities without drugs', is meant to reinforce the role that communities play in addressing the drugs challenge. Events will be held all over the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe, to look at the effects of drugs in local communities and how we can stop them.

From the dangerous effects of heroin to the prevention of HIV/AIDS and needle sharing, there will be information available to get educated and join the fight against drug abuse.

A Colombian drug lord under arrest

The day's theme aims at highlighting the fact that successful approaches in drug use prevention and treatment involve families, schools, and communities to build on protective factors, and it further calls upon communities to take action against drugs.

It is important to recognise what community groups are doing to reduce drug abuse and how they can work together to tackle drugs and the problems that drugs create in the society.

Global action

It also stresses the need for 'global action', since the drugs cancer has now grown globally. Individual countries alone cannot fight the sophisticated drug smuggling operatives and networks - it is an operation that requires international cooperation.

Community and grassroots initiatives have a crucial role to play in preventing drug use, UN Office on Drugs and Crimes Executive Director Yury Fedotov told a recent meeting.

"Drug control is not all about governments and law enforcement; it is also about families, teachers, youth leaders and mentors. Prevention starts with a community that cares about the vulnerable. Think globally, act locally", he said, stressing that community-level action must be stepped up.

Children and youth comprise the social group that is most vulnerable to drugs. The message on drugs has to be conveyed to children first at home by parents and then at school by teachers. Religious leaders and places of worship too have a major role to play in moulding a younger generation that abhors drugs.

The media has an obligation to inform the society about the dangers of narcotics and other substances which can be abused. Sri Lanka also has a number of Governmental and Non-Governmental organisations which educate the public effectively on substance abuse.

The world community must intensify the 'war on drugs', just as it intensified the war on terrorism. On a global level, it has emerged that drug traffickers use increasingly sophisticated methods to smuggle drugs.

"There has been a repositioning of the drug routes and the drug traffickers have much more sophisticated means and they are using more routes," a UN official explained recently.

There is evidence to suggest cartels have used submarines, as they have done off the South American and Caribbean coasts. "We are not talking about military vessels, but rather smaller ones which can be bought freely in the international market by anybody who has a couple of million dollars to spare," he said.

Drug cartels, which were earlier confined to South America, had started to emerge all over the world, especially in Asia and Africa. They stayed one step ahead of transnational crime units, according to UN researchers.

The drug trade is flourishing despite crackdowns by governments. For example, at current levels, world heroin consumption (340 tons) and seizures represent an annual flow of 430-450 tons of heroin into the global heroin market.

Of that total, opium from Myanmar and Laos yields some 50 tons, while the rest, some 380 tons of heroin and morphine, is produced exclusively from Afghan opium. While approximately five tons are consumed and seized in Afghanistan, the remaining bulk of 375 tons is trafficked worldwide via routes flowing into and through the countries neighbouring Afghanistan.

Record level

In 2008, global heroin seizures reached a record level of 73.7 metric tons. Most of the heroin was seized in the Near and Middle East and South-West Asia (39 percent of the global total), South-East Europe (24 percent) and Western and Central Europe (10 percent).

Violence related to drug trafficking is increasing

As for cocaine, it is used by some 16 to 17 million people worldwide, similar to the number of global opiate users. North America accounted for more than 40 percent of global cocaine consumption (the total was estimated at around 470 tons), while the 27 European Union and four European Free Trade Association countries accounted for more than a quarter of the total consumption.

These two regions account for more than 80 percent of the total value of the global cocaine market, estimated at $88 billion. These are statistics pertaining to just two illicit drugs that illustrate the scale of the problem faced by law enforcement authorities.

Urgent action has to be taken to prevent the younger generation from falling prey to the evils of illicit drugs. That must be the cornerstone of any governmental and international action against the illegal drugs trade. The authorities everywhere must pursue the drug lords who spread this cancer in society.

Their victims - those who are addicted to drugs - have to be fully rehabilitated while taking all possible steps to ward off others from the drugs menace.

The world anti-drug day that falls today is an ideal opportunity to reflect on these issues and take action at community and government level to create a righteous society free of illegal narcotics.