Supply and demand are two equal sides of the drug menace. Demand reduction is a full partner in our strategy. UNDCP´s country-level projects are almost evenly divided between demand, supply and law enforcement.

Delegates to the Special Session will have the chance to adopt the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction. It would be a dynamic step, establishing for the first time a common denominator of measures. The standards that have been set for drug-producing countries for years would now be mirrored in places where there is a demand for illegal drugs. We must look into the future and set realistic goals, both as individual nations and for the world.

President Bill Clinton has set a target for 50 per cent demand reduction in the United States during the next ten years. Many political leaders at the highest level are planning to come to New York in June. The leaders who gather there and make similar pledges will have the eyes of the world upon them, and their words will carry an even greater significance. However, there are times when words get lost in the translation to actions. How then do we know that the international community is moving in the right direction?

UNDCP supports the call for the establishment or strengthening of regional mechanisms to share experiences and results of national strategies. We will continue to take an active role in supporting the work of these regional mechanisms, ensuring thereby a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of drug control policies.

The fight must be taken to the next stage—the global level. We must adopt a universal plan of action. The perfect place to show our commitment to the international fight against illegal drugs is at the Special Session of the General Assembly.

Transnational organized crime has become a major force in world finance. We can talk about globalization, new technology and the information age, but the fact is there are more opportunities than ever before for drug traffickers to make their "dirty" money "clean". The situation is changing overnight as methods of money laundering become even more sophisticated.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that 2 to 5 per cent of the global gross domestic product comes from laundered money. According to UNDCP, this represents between $300 billion and $400 billion annually, or approximately 8 per cent of total international trade. At a time when trade barriers all over the world are coming down, money laundering undermines the smooth functioning of markets and has a negative impact on economic growth.

It has been ten years since the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which addressed money laundering as an international problem for the first time. Today, an estimated 70 per cent of all Member States still do not have proper legislation to remedy this obstacle to criminal investigations. The General Assembly is expected to establish the year 2003 as the target date to enact appropriate national money laundering legislation.

UNDCP and its crime prevention sister organization—now under the single Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP)—have launched the Global Programme Against Money Laundering. It is in the second year of a three-year mandate. It provides Governments with assistance in adopting effective legislation and it bolsters their detection and enforcement capabilities.

ODCCP is focussing its attention on two major impediments to criminal investigations—bank secrecy and the expansion of off-shore centers in providing secure havens for illicit profits derived from drug trafficking and organized crime. Comprehensive studies will be completed later this spring.

It is not easy to counter money laundering, but greater information and working together have been effective. We must continue to help Governments pass stricter banking legislation that will open up the financial system to criminal investigations and crack down on those who could safely hide their illegal profits.

Given the central role of the United Nations, and in particular UNDCP, I hope Member States will ensure matching resources for our new strategies. As Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said with conviction when he paraphrased Winston Churchill, it truly is a case of "giving us the tools and letting us do the job". Then all of us who care so deeply about a future free from the evils of illegal drugs can go onward from New York with a renewed sense of strength.

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I have traveled from Bogotá to Bonn and many points in between over the past year. I´ve discussed drug control issues with Presidents and senior government officials, but I also went out into the field. I talked to peasant farmers, local leaders and the people who are working to eliminate the supply and demand on the frontlines. Almost universally, people are convinced that the time is coming when illegal drugs are going to be very hard to find. On a trip in February, I was struck by how effective the national alternative plans are already working in the Andean region. Statistics once again tell the story. UNDCP estimates that in Peru in 1990 over 200 thousand hectares were under coca cultivation. Seven years later, it´s less than 70 thousand hectares. Only ten years ago in Bolivia, 41,000 hectares were cultivated with the coca plant. Today, the amount of land under coca cultivation has dropped by almost 20 per cent. — Pino Arlacchi Drug Facts Each link returns a unique fact.