Concern about flow of drugs

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 17

Concern about flow of drugs

IN.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

GENEVA, February 22.

A United Nations drug control body said yesterday that despite international surveillance, large quantities of contraband drugs continued to flow out of countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and Bolivia.

In its annual report for 1971, the International Narcotics Control Board said that it was also concerned by the complete absence of official information about China, North Korea, North Vietnam and Equatorial Guim ..

The report said that large quantities of opitnn and cannabis resin were smuggled into Pakistan and Burma from Afghanistan, and in view of the area’s poor natural resources and its neighbour’s political problems, curtailment of this drug source was unlikely until there was radical improvement in the economic situation. The board said that the

Afghanistan Government should co-operate to seek remedies, and at the same time aid programmes for Afght cistan and Pakistan should take into account the drug situation.

The board said that Burma had long been a problem area, and reports that heroin was now being manufactured there made the situation even more grave.

“The board is handicapped by the paucity of information which it receives from governmental sources,” the report said. “Much more positive action is essential in the interest, both of the world community and of Burma’s international reputation if the already very grave situation is to be remedied and the evident danger of further deterioration is to be prevented.” The board added that greater efforts were also needed from the Thai Government to check poppy cultivation.

In Laos it was impossible to assess the situation because of the troubled conditions, but the board hoped that the Government would apply stringent measures to check the outflow of opium. In South Vietnam, the board reported a phenomenal upsurge of drug abuse and an alarming spread of addiction among the Armed Forces there.

Bolivia remained a major producer of coca leaves and there seemed little or no effective control over production or distribution.

The board urged the Bolivian Government to give early attention to “this detrimental situation,” which was aggravated by the growing resort to cocaine in several parts of the world. The board reported difficulties in Lebanon in making sunflower seed a substitute crop for cannabis, because it was less profitable. If illicit traffic from Lebanon were to be stopped, further positive action by the Lebanese Government was needed and more foreign aid to help it, the report said.