By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- While the Internet and globalization have revolutionized the way people live today, they have also created problems in fighting illicit drug trafficking and use, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said in its annual report for 2001.

The INCB used the report, which was released February 27, to highlight its concerns about the misuse of new technologies in international drug control. But the board said it was addressing these problems "not in a spirit of rejection, but because of the danger that the beneficial effects of these phenomena on society are being undermined by individuals and criminal groups."

"Drug trafficking groups utilize new technologies in two distinct ways: to improve the efficiency of product delivery and distribution and to protect themselves and their illicit operations from investigation by drug law enforcement agencies," the INCB report said.

"The challenges are not surprising but interesting and important. The traffickers and criminal elements seem to be very quick at using new technologies," said Ambassador Herbert Okun, the U.S. member of the INCB, at a press conference introduction the report.

"The worldwide web has become a vehicle ... for good, but the dark side is that you can trade illegal substances on it. For example, there is a company in The Netherlands that openly advertises for sale cannabis seeds all over the world ... there are chat rooms that discuss recipes for making of drugs," Okun said.

Drug traffickers use computers to conceal information about drug shipments by using encrypted messages, the board said. They use electronic pocket organizers to store contact details, bank account numbers, sales records and grid coordinates for hidden landing strips. Surrogates receive instructions by telephone, fax, pager or computer on where to deliver warehouse loads, whom to contact for transportation, and where to send the profits. Traffickers can program their computers to detect attempted intrusion and use "back-hacking" techniques to damage investigators.

The spiraling growth in the sale of prescription drugs over the Internet represents a serious challenge to drug safety regulators and law enforcement agencies, the report said. The board also has evidence that the Internet is being used as a vehicle for the exchange of messages and information favoring drug abuse, especially among young people.

Nevertheless, Okun said, the International Narcotics Control Board "is not about to call for censorship. The board explicitly states in the report that ... we do think that with the universality of the Web, the universality of the drug control conventions, you need some kind of an international response."

The INCB called upon governments, industry, advocacy groups and health professionals to help regulate the Web in a sensible way. It recommends that Internet providers set up hotlines to which the public can report offensive or illegal content on sites. It also recommends that law enforcement agencies should have the necessary technology to combat cyber crime. Governments should require online pharmacies to be licensed wherever they operate or deliver prescription drugs, it said.

The INCB Annual Report also described the drug situation around the world.

In Africa, there has been a decrease in the age at which young people start abusing drugs, the report said. And among heroin abusers, the method of administration is shifting towards injection -- which will contribute to the further spreading of HIV/AIDS.

Cannabis is illicitly grown throughout Africa and is abused locally as well as smuggled within the continent and into Europe and North America. Morocco, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal are the main sources for the drug, the report said. But there has been an increase in seizures. According to Interpol, 22 percent of cannabis seizures made worldwide in 2001 were in Africa.

Africa continues to be a major transit area for heroin trafficking with Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria as major transit points for smuggling heroin from Southeast and Southwest Asia. Heroin from Asia, and more recently South America, is being packaged in Africa to be smuggled into Europe and North America, the report said.

Trafficking in and abuse of cocaine have been increasing, particularly in western and southern Africa, according to the report. Important transit points are in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland. The INCB is concerned that Morocco is becoming a transit country for Latin American cocaine consignments destined for Europe and that cocaine and synthetic drug abuse in Morocco is increasing. Because it is more affordable, the abuse of "crack" in South Africa is growing faster than the abuse of any other drug.

Coca bush continues to be cultivated exclusively in South America with overall production levels remaining stable despite fluctuations in individual countries, the report said. The abuse of cocaine has been increasing, particularly in transit countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela. Bolivia and Peru are the only countries in the region in which cocaine abuse appears to have decreased.

Almost all countries in South America are used by traffickers as transit points, the report said. South American law enforcement authorities, especially Colombian, continue to seize significant amounts of cocaine, the total quantity fluctuating between 100 and 160 tons over the past five years.

Central America and the Caribbean are still the main routes to transport illicit drugs from South America north, but in addition to smuggling cannabis, cocaine and heroin, traffickers have diversified so that they are also smuggling psychotropic substances, mainly Ecstasy from Europe. There has also been a noticeable increase in firearms trafficking on drug routes along with an increase in other crimes such as trafficking in persons and motor vehicle theft, the report said.

Cannabis, the only drug crop grown in the Caribbean, remains an important source of income in Jamaica and other islands, the report noted.

Central American governments have expressed concern that Colombian drug traffickers may establish laboratories for processing cocaine in the region in an effort to develop a new market to counter the increased pressure created by Plan Colombia. All transit countries have reported an increase in drug abuse as middlemen are being paid in kind and the availability of drugs locally has risen. Drug-related crime and violence have risen also and the abuse of "crack" is rising in the region as well, the report said.

In the United States, cocaine abuse appears to be stabilizing and even declining, it said. The abuse of "crack" is diminishing as the addict population is aging. Heroin abuse is generally stagnating, but the INCB said that a rise in use among young people might be emerging.

In Asia, New Delhi has become a major transit point for heroin trafficking to Europe and North America from Myanmar, the report said. Efforts to fight drug traffickers in South Asia are hampered by insurgencies and political instability, the difficult terrain in most of the countries, and, sometimes, by the corruption of local politicians and law enforcement officers.

Cannabis is the most widely abused drug in the region but the INCB is concerned about the increase in heroin injection, particularly in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

For the last decade, Afghanistan has been the world's largest producer of heroin, but in 2001 the drought caused a significant decrease in crops and production shifted to Myanmar, Okun said. But "Afghanistan clearly has the capacity to become again the world's largest producer of heroin," he added.

He urged the international community to help the Interim Administration in Afghanistan establish effective crop substitution programs and law enforcement.

Despite the Taliban's ban on poppy growing, there were no heroin seizures in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and the INCB estimated that there was a three to six-year supply of heroin being held in the country. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and subsequent events, large amounts of heroin were released into the market. There has been no decrease in the amount of illicit heroin available, the report said.

There has been a significant increase in the quantity of drugs from Afghanistan seized in the region. The quantity of heroin seized in Tajikistan in the first six months of 2001 is equal to the amount seized in that country in 2000. The situation in Kyrgyzstan is similar, the report said.

Poppy growing and drug trafficking in West Asia have had a considerable impact on drug abuse in the region, it said. Opiate addiction in Iran and Pakistan continue to be among the highest in the world.

The report has shown, Okun said, that "the drug trade is universal, not merely a one-way street from the developing countries up to the developed countries -- it goes in all directions and internally as well."