Call for joint drug fight

Press, 15 June 1979, Page 5

Call for joint drug fight

NZPA-Reuter Paris The United States has called on big industrial nations to join forces in the fight against drug abuse bydiscouraging production in poor countries. The proposal was made by the United States Deputy Secretary of State (Mr Warren Christopher) at the opening session of the annual Ministerial conference of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The direct economic cost of illicit narcotics transactions in the United States alone was $4O billion annually plus about $10.2 bil-

lion in social and health costs, he said. O.E.C.D. assistance programmes should help farmers in developing countries engaged in raising narcoticsrelated crops to earn money in other ways. The O.E.C.D. should, also compile international statistics on drugs, showing for example numbers of deaths from heroin overdoses in member countries, Mr Christopher said. The State Department’s narcotics specialist, Mathea Falco, told a news conference that deaths from heroin abuse in the United States were down from 1500 two years ago to 420 in 1978,

mainly because the Mexican supply had been cut.

This success contrasted with a steady increase in numbers of deaths from heroin overdoses in Western Europe, particularly West Germany where the deterioration was dramatic — 420 deaths last year, matching the United States. Mrs Falco said Pakistan and Afghanistan had replaced the “golden triangle” countries — Thailand, Burma, and Laos — as the world’s main producers of illicit opium with a current output of up to 1000 tonnes a year, double that of the three South-East Asian nations.