26 de junho: Vamos ajudar o UNODC a fazer uma escolha saudável!

26 de junho é o Dia Internacional contra o Abuso e o Tráfico de Drogas. Instituído pela Assembléia Geral da ONU em 1987, este dia serve para relembrar as metas acordadas pelos Estados-Membros, para criar um mundo livre de drogas. O Escritório das Nações Unidas sobre Drogas e Crime (UNODC) seleciona temas para o Dia Internacional e lança campanhas de sensibilização sobre o problema mundial das drogas. Saúde é o tema em curso da campanha mundial anti- drogas.

Na nossa opinião, o UNODC está enviando uma mensagem ambígua (para não dizer hipócrita). Por um lado, mobiliza as pessoas a apoiarem o atual sistema de controle de drogas que, não só fracassou miseravelmente em evitar o uso de drogas, mas também gerou prejuízos imensos. Por outro lado, estimula os jovens a fazerem escolhas saudáveis.

Concordamos que, não só os jovens, mas todos nós devemos fazer escolhas saudáveis em nossas vidas, mas acreditamos que o atual sistema de controle de drogas não tem nos ajudado a fazê-la.

Através da criminalização de algumas drogas, estabelecida em três convenções da ONU, o sistema atual não tem promovido uma política de drogas saudável em seus Estados membros. É bastante claro agora, que é a própria política de criminalização das drogas que está por trás da maioria dos problemas sociais e de saúde relacionados ao uso de drogas. O UNODC está ciente disso e até reconheceu o fato em certa medida, quando o seu diretor executivo, Antonio Maria Costa falou, no ano passado, sobre "as consequências não intencionais" da proibição das drogas. Portanto, poderíamos considerar como negligência criminosa a continuidade deste sistema.

Este sistema, baseado em interdição, prejudica a saúde e o bem-estar de centenas de milhões de pessoas e dificulta o desenvolvimento de soluções alternativas e criativas para resolver os problemas relacionados às drogas e ainda impede o uso de certas substâncias para fins industriais, medicinais e outros fins benéficos para o ser humano.

Sob esta atmosfera de medo e de constante ameaça dos males das drogas, gerado pelas campanhas do UNODC, a maioria dos Estados-Membros não apresenta interesse em implementar qualquer outra política que não seja a de "guerra às drogas". A maioria dos países ainda criminaliza o consumo de drogas e alguns usam punições extremamente desproporcionais, como a pena de morte. A redução de danos e estratégias de tratamento voluntário recebem pouco apoio e estão, de fato, a perder força em muitos países que necessitam desesperadamente de soluções mais criativas para seus problemas relacionados às drogas. Os usuários de drogas são frequentemente expostos à má qualidade e contaminação das drogas porque, neste sistema as drogas são oferecidas exclusivamente por meios ilegais. Os consumidores estão sendo, também, privados dos potenciais benefícios terapêuticos de plantas e outras substâncias (como a morfina, a maconha, MDMA, folhas de coca, etc) que são estritamente controladas pelas convenções da ONU ou, como na maioria dos casos, consideradas sem valor terapêutico. Os custos judiciais e policiais alocados na tentativa de reduzir a oferta de drogas ainda representam a maior parte do “orçamento das drogas" deixando, em muitos países, menos de 30% do total de recursos para ser investido na prevenção, redução de danos e tratamento.

Uma abordagem saudável para a questão das drogas é, portanto, incompatível com o atual sistema de controle das drogas da ONU. Se o UNODC quer realmente promover a saúde, ele deve primeiro fazer uma escolha mais saudável para si mesmo, o que significa uma profunda revisão das convenções, permitindo uma maior flexibilidade aos Estados-Membros para a adoção de novas políticas e acabar de uma vez por todas esta insustentável política de guerra às drogas.

Neste 26 de junho, vamos ajudar o UNODC a fazer uma escolha saudável. Envie um e-mail para o diretor executivo do UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa (antonio.maria.costa@unodc.org,) dizendo como a política proibicionista tem causado danos à sua saúde, mais até que a própria droga. Você também pode divulgar sua mensagem através da página da campanha do UNODC no facebook. A participação política também é uma atitude saudável, participe!

Press release and call for action on June 26 from ENCOD

No Brasil a Psicotropicus promove evento cultural para marcar o dia 26, compareça!

Comments on UNODC World Drug Report 2010

As they do every year just before the 26 of June (World day against drugs), UNODC released yesterday the 2010 World drug report. Below is just UNODC's press release, but it highlights the main points of the report. As we all know this report is based in rather controversial collection of data from member states, so we should be aware of the always biased content of the report. But, anyway, it is an important tool to see trends in UNODC position and line of campaigning. I highlighted (in red) some statements I found important and I also made some comments (in blue CAPS).

Press release UNODC World Drug Report 2010

Shows Shift Towards New Drugs and New Markets

Report highlights threat of drugs to health and security

VIENNA, 23 June (UN Information Service) - The World Drug Report 2010, issued today at the National Press Club in Washington by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets. Drug cultivation is declining in Afghanistan (for opium) and the Andean countries (coca), and drug use has stabilized in the developed world. However, there are signs of an increase in drug use in developing countries, and growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and prescription drugs around the world.

Cultivation of opium and cocaine down

The Report shows that the world's supply of the two main problem drugs - opiates and cocaine - keeps declining. The global area under opium cultivation has dropped by almost a quarter (23 per cent) in the past two years, and opium production looks set to fall steeply in 2010 due to a blight that could wipe out a quarter of Afghanistan's poppy crop. Coca cultivation, down by 28 per cent in the past decade, has kept declining in 2009. World cocaine production has declined by 12-18 per cent over the 2007-2009 period.

Heroin: production declining, interdictions low

Global potential heroin production fell by 13 per cent to 657 tons in 2009, reflecting lower opium production in both Afghanistan and Myanmar. The actual amount of heroin reaching the market is much lower (around 430 tons) since significant amounts of opium are being stockpiled. UNODC estimates that there are currently more than 12,000 tons of Afghan opium or, around two and a half years of global illicit opiate demand, being stock-piled.

The global heroin market, estimated at US$55 billion, is concentrated in Afghanistan (which accounts for 90 per cent of supply), Russia, Iran and Western Europe which together consume half the heroin produced in the world.

Although Afghanistan produces most of the world's opiates, it seizes less than two per cent of them. Iran and Turkey are scoring the highest, responsible for over half of all heroin seized globally in 2008. Interdiction rates elsewhere are much lower. Along the northern route, the countries of Central Asia are only seizing a meagre five per cent of the 90 tons of heroin that cross their territory heading towards Russia. In turn Russia, that consumes 20 per cent of the Afghan heroin output, seizes only four per cent of this flow. The figures are even worse along the Balkan route: some countries of South-Eastern Europe, including EU member states, are intercepting less than two per cent of the heroin crossing their territory.

Cocaine market is shifting

The World Drug Report 2010 shows that cocaine consumption has fallen significantly in the United States in the past few years. The retail value of the US cocaine market has declined by about two thirds in the 1990s, and by about one quarter in the past decade. "One reason for the drug-related violence in Mexico is that cartels are fighting over a shrinking market," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. "This in-fight is a blessing for America, as the resulting cocaine drought is causing lower addiction rates, higher prices and lesser purity of doses."

To an extent the problem has moved across the Atlantic: in the last decade the number of cocaine users in Europe doubled, from 2 million in 1998 to 4.1 million in 2008. By 2008, the European market (US$34 billion) was almost as valuable as the North American market (US$37 billion). The shift in demand has led to a shift in trafficking routes, with an increasing amount of cocaine flowing to Europe from the Andean countries via West Africa. This is causing regional instability. "People snorting coke in Europe are killing the pristine forests of the Andean countries and corrupting governments in West Africa," said Mr. Costa.

Use of synthetic drugs exceeds opiates and cocaine combined

The global number of people using amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) - estimated at around 30-40 million - is soon likely to exceed the number of opiate and cocaine users combined. There is also evidence of increasing abuse of prescription drugs. "We will not solve the world drugs problem if we simply push addiction from cocaine and heroin to other addictive substances - and there are unlimited amounts of them, produced in mafia labs at trivial costs," warned Mr. Costa.

The ATS market is harder to track because of short trafficking routes (manufacturing usually takes place close to main consumer markets), and the fact that many of the raw materials are both legal and readily available. Manufacturers are quick to market new products (like ketamine, piperazines, Mephedrone and Spice) and exploit new markets. "These new drugs cause a double problem. First, they are being developed at a much faster rate than regulatory norms and law enforcement can keep up. Second, their marketing is cunningly clever, as they are custom-manufactured so as to meet the specific preference in each situation," said Mr. Costa.

The number of ATS-related clandestine laboratories reported increased by 20 per cent in 2008, including in countries where such labs had never been detected in the past.

Manufacture of 'ecstasy' has increased in North America (notably in Canada) and in several parts of Asia, and use seems to be increasing in Asia. In another demonstration of the fluidity of drug markets, ecstasy use in Europe has plummeted since 2006.

(ANOTHER GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE FAILURE OF THE ACTUAL GLOBAL CONTROL SYSTEM BASED ON CROP ERADICATION AND INTERDICTION IN BORDERS AND TRANSITION COUNTRIES)

Cannabis still the world's drug of choice

Cannabis remains the world's most widely produced and used illicit substance: it is grown in almost all countries of the world, and is smoked by 130-190 million people at least once a year - though these parameters are not very telling in terms of addiction. The fact that cannabis use is declining in some of its highest value markets, namely North America and parts of Europe, is another indication of shifting patterns of drug abuse.

UNODC found evidence of indoor cultivation of cannabis for commercial purposes in 29 countries, particularly in Europe, Australia and North America. Indoor growing is a lucrative business and is increasingly a source of profit for criminal groups. Based on evidence gathered in 2009, Afghanistan is now the world's leading producer of cannabis resin (as well as opium).

Insufficient drug treatment

The World Drug Report 2010 exposes a serious lack of drug treatment facilities around the world. "While rich people in rich countries can afford treatment, poor people and/or poor countries are facing the greatest health consequences," warned the head of UNODC. The Report estimates that, in 2008, only around a fifth of problem drug users worldwide had received treatment in the past year, which means around 20 million drug dependent people did not receive treatment. "It is time for universal access to drug treatment," said Mr. Costa.

He called for health to be the centrepiece of drug control. "Drug addiction is a treatable health condition, not a life sentence. Drug addicts should be sent to treatment, not to jail. And drug treatment should be part of mainstream healthcare."

(OK, WE AGREE, BUT SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY ON DRUG INTERDICTION, CRIMINAL JUSTICE COSTS AND DRUG WAR FAIRS (ALL SUPPORTED AND STIMULATED BY UNODC), HOW EXACTLY COUNTRIES WILL BE ABLE TO INVEST MORE ON DRUG TREATMENT, PREVENTION AND HARM REDUCTION?)

He also called for greater respect for human rights. "Just because people take drugs, or are behind bars, this doesn't abolish their rights. I appeal to countries where people are executed for drug-related offences or, worse, are gunned down by extra-judicial hit squads, to end this practice."

(HE FAILS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WAS THIS CLIMATE OF DRUG WAR PROMOTED BY UNODC AND HIS STRONGEST ALLIES - LIKE USA- THAT VERY LIKELY ENCOURAGED THOSE COUNTRIES TO EXTEND THIS KIND OF PENALTIES TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS AND USERS).

Warning signs in the developing world

Mr. Costa highlighted the dangers of drug use in the developing world. "Market forces have already shaped the asymmetric dimensions of the drug economy; the world's biggest consumers of the poison (the rich countries) have imposed upon the poor (the main locations of supply and trafficking) the greatest damage," said Mr. Costa. "Poor countries are not in a position to absorb the consequences of increased drug use. The developing world faces a looming crisis that would enslave millions to the misery of drug dependence."

He cited the boom in heroin consumption in Eastern Africa, the rise of cocaine use in West Africa and South America, and the surge in the production and abuse of synthetic drugs in the Middle East and South East Asia. "We will not solve the world drugs problem by shifting consumption from the developed to the developing world," said Mr. Costa.

Drug trafficking and instability

The World Drug Report 2010 contains a chapter on the destabilizing influence of drug trafficking on transit countries, focusing in particular on the case of cocaine. It shows how under-development and weak governance attract crime, while crime deepens instability. It shows how the wealth, violence and power of drug trafficking can undermine the security, even the sovereignty, of states. The threat to security posed by drug trafficking has been on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council several times during the past year.

While drug-related violence in Mexico receives considerable attention, the Northern Triangle of Central America, consisting of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is even more badly affected, with murder rates much higher than in Mexico. The Report says that Venezuela has emerged as a major departure point for cocaine trafficked to Europe: between 2006 and 2008, over half of all detected maritime shipments of cocaine to Europe came from Venezuela.

The Report highlights the unstable situation in West Africa which has become a hub for cocaine trafficking. It notes that "traffickers have been able to co-opt top figures in some authoritarian societies", citing the recent case of Guinea-Bissau.

Mr. Costa called for more development to reduce vulnerability to crime, and increased law enforcement cooperation to deal with drug trafficking. "Unless we deal effectively with the threat posed by organized crime, our societies will be held hostage - and drug control will be jeopardized, by renewed calls to dump the UN drug conventions that critics say are the cause of crime and instability. This would undo the progress that has been made in drug control over the past decade, and unleash a public health disaster," he warned. "Yet, unless drug prevention and treatment are taken more seriously, public opinion's support to the UN drug conventions will wane."

(IN THE LATEST ENCOD BULLETIN I RAISED SOME ARGUMENTS TO SHOW THAT THE ACTUAL SYSTEM IS THE MAJOR RESPONSIBLE FOR UNDERDEVELOPMENT AND DRUG HEALTH PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. WE HAVE TO CONTINUE RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE (OR "UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES") OF THE CURRENT "DRUG CONTROL" SYSTEM AND SHOW ALTERNATIVES THAT COULD IMPROVE HEALTH AND DIMINISH DRUG TRAFFICKING RELATED VIOLENCE).

LET'S SPREAD THE HYPOCRISY OF THE UNODC STRATEGY, THAT IS IN ONE HAND PROMOTING INCREASE ON DRUG WAR EXPENSES AND ON THE OTHER IS CALLING FOR A HEALTHIER APPROACH. IN MY VIEW THOSE TWO CANNOT FAIRLY COEXIST. FOR A TRULY HEALTHIER APPROACH A NEW DRUG REGULATION SYSTEM HAS TO BE PUT IN PLACE, RESPECTING DRUG USERS NEEDS AND RIGHTS, AND FINDING SOLUTIONS - NOT ONLY JAIL OR DEATH - TO PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH PRODUCTION AND TRAFFICKING.)TR

PERU: Poverty Provides Growing Number of ‘Drug Mules’

By Ángel Páez

LIMA, Feb 2008 (IPS) - Anti-drug police at Peru’s "Jorge Chávez" international airport in Lima have had their hands full over the last year, arresting nearly two "mules" a day, each carrying an average of five kg of pure cocaine.
In 2005, 249 "mules" or drug couriers were arrested. In 2006 there were 454 arrests, and last year the number rose to 721, carrying a total of nearly four tons of cocaine, the police National Anti-Drug Directorate told IPS.

The usual method is to swallow some 10 packets or capsules, each containing 100 grams of cocaine. But often larger quantities are carried, with the drug hidden under false bottoms in luggage, camouflaged in different kinds of containers, or attached to the body with adhesive tape.

Of the 721 smugglers arrested in 2007, 62.4 percent (453) were Peruvian and the rest were foreigners, particularly from Spain (45), the Netherlands (29) and Brazil (18). Over three-quarters of the Peruvian "mules" were poor or unemployed.

According to the histories of detainees taken by the anti-drug police at the airport, the going rate paid by drug traffickers to couriers who swallow cocaine packets and are sent to Brazil or Argentina is about 1,000 dollars.

If they are sent to the United States, Europe or Asia, where the drugs have higher value, payment can be between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars. The more the couriers travel, the more they are paid, unless they are caught by the police, or die from cocaine poisoning when a capsule splits open in their bowels.

For a poor or unemployed Peruvian, the payment for swallowing the capsules and travelling four or five hours to Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo is extremely attractive, in spite of the risks.

The number of people willing to take the risk is increasing. In 2007, 452 were arrested, compared to 193 in 2006.

Poverty creates a fertile recruiting ground.

The Peruvian press, accustomed to printing news about "mule" detentions, was nevertheless shocked on Dec. 22 by the arrest of 43-year-old Evelyn Changra, who attempted to travel to Buenos Aires with one kg of cocaine in her stomach, together with her children, aged 17 and 15, who had also swallowed drugs.

"This was a very poor family from San Juan de Lurigancho," an anti-drug police officer told IPS, referring to one of the most densely populated shantytown districts of Lima.

"The drug trafficker who recruited Evelyn Changra promised her 3,000 dollars if she would take her children along. She accepted because she had never been offered so much money in her life," the source said.

A large proportion of Peruvian "mules" also come from Villa El Salvador, Comas and Carabayllo, similar working-class districts on the outskirts of Lima.

Of the 721 couriers intercepted at the airport, 303 (42 percent) were heading for Brazil, 148 (20.5 percent) for Argentina and 122 (16.9 percent) for Spain. Recently introduced cut-price commercial flights from Lima to Sao Paulo have encouraged the drug mafias to increase trafficking to Brazil’s biggest city.

In Argentina, drug traffickers are active among the large Peruvian community in Buenos Aires, and through relatives, they recruit "mules" from poor districts like San Juan de Lurigancho. In fact, the most important drug lords operating in the Argentine capital come from that part of Lima.

"Those we catch tend to be people who stand out because they are obviously nervous, behave suspiciously, or don’t look as if they could afford a plane ticket. But many do manage to leave the country," the police source said. "It’s impossible to take X-rays of everybody, and it’s also impossible to search all the baggage and every object that could potentially be hiding cocaine."

As trafficking by "mule" increases, President Alan García announced that he would hold talks with the governments of several countries so that their citizens would serve sentences in their home countries, to ease the overcrowding in Peruvian prisons. The National Prisons Institute told IPS that only 18 percent of the drug couriers arrested have so far been sentenced.

In the Santa Monica women’s prison in Lima, there are 1,275 inmates accused of drug-related crimes: 942 Peruvians and 207 foreigners. Less than 240 have already been convicted and sentenced.

"Mules" who are willing to cooperate with the justice system can reduce their sentences by up to seven years. But if they refuse to cooperate, they risk being accused of belonging to an international drug trafficking organisation, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

"There’s been a real wave of arrests, and all the indications are that 2008 will be another record year. Now the drug barons are recruiting people from the valleys where cocaine is refined and produced. Using ‘mules’ is a cheap method for them, because losing half a ton or one ton of cocaine in a big shipment is worse than losing one kilo when a ‘mule’ is caught," said the officer.

The main cocaine production centres are in the Huallaga valley, in the country’s Amazon jungle region, and in the basins of the Apurimac and Ene rivers, in the southeastern part of the highlands region. Poverty is extreme in both places. In some areas up to 70 percent of the population is poor.

According to a 2007 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cocaine production in Peru has been rising over the last five years.

In 2001, the estimated production of cocaine hydrochloride was 150 tons, compared to 280 tons in 2006.

However, according to the Peruvian police force’s own statistics, drug seizures fell last year. In 2006, 14.6 tons of cocaine were confiscated, and in 2007, just over eight tons. Good news for the traffickers. (END/2008)