OFFICE OF DRUG CONTROL AND CRIME PREVENTION*
Did you know that...• The illicit drug industry is worth about 8 per cent of total international trade or 10 times the sum of all official development assistance.
• Drug abuse costs the Organization for Economic Cooper- ation and Development (OECD) countries more than $120 billion per year in drug enforcement, prosecutions, prisons, prevention programmes, treatment and health-care costs, and financial losses incurred from drug-related crimes.
• Estimated global interception rates for smuggled drugs are around 10 per cent for heroin and 30 per cent for cocaine.
• In recent years, illicit drug consumption has increased throughout the world. Various indicators make it clear that consumption is growing and has become a truly global phenomenon.
• In situations of armed conflict, illicit drug revenues -- or the drugs themselves -- are often exchanged for arms.
• Since the mid-1980s the world has faced a wave of synthetic stimulant abuse, with approximately 10 times the quantity seized in 1994 as in 1978.
*In 1997, the separate Vienna-based offices dealing with drug control and crime prevention were combined into a single office. The present text reflects only the drug-related activities of the new office.
El pajaro frutero
Ten-year-old Paco works as a shoe-shiner on the streets in Guayaquil, Ecuador. People who see him on the street call him pajaro frutero meaning 'fruit bird' after the small annoying birds that flock around the ripe fruits at harvest time.
"He needs at least five clients in the morning if he is to buy lunch and another five if he is to eat dinner. If he can't make that quota, he'll go hungry. Sniffing glue is a survival strategy for Paco; when he is 'high', he forgets his hunger, his pains and the cold. He has no idea that the glue he sniffs is harming his brain and internal organs. He just wants to feel good."
ODCCP trains street workers to help Paco and children like him. ODCCP prevention programmes target the most-at-risk groups in many countries around the world. Prevention progammes are often conducted through schools, through the mass media and street/social workers.
The Old Silk Road
The Old Silk Road, the famous trading corridor from Asia to Western Europe, once brought prosperity and wealth to those along its trail. It now also brings grief and suffering in the form of opium and heroin. The borders along the trail are new. Until 1991, many of the countries along the trail were part of the Soviet Union. Today they are independent countries, forced to defend long borders and address new problems.
"The authorities are overwhelmed. 'We have no equipment or money' reports one border control agent who was echoing an often-heard complaint. Customs control is often a hut at the side of the road. There are no computers, no telephones and no power. 'Take our radios, for instance, they don't work. Our cars don't go and we don't have money for repairs.' To find hidden drugs he relies heavily upon intuition and luck."
ODCCP finances and facilitates many projects that assist border control officers around the world to intercept drugs and drug traffickers. It also develops regional strategies and brokers agreements to ensure that countries are cooperating fully with each other at both the strategic and operational levels.
hidden drugs. An X-ray showed that there were no hidden compartments. We were baffled. Finally after testing the suitcase itself, we found that the shell of the case was not made from the usual hard plastic, but was rather solid heroin that had been moulded into the shape of a case, and then fitted with locks."
Police Dog Patch Patch, a 6-year-old German Shepherd, specializes in searching for hidden drugs at London's airports.
"A few weeks ago, Patch was barking at a suitcase, clearly indicating that he could detect a drug scent. We repeatedly searched for, but couldn't find any
ODCCP supports the training of sniffer-dogs and their handlers in many countries. It also provides countries with easy-to-use drug identification kits for use by border control officers.
ODCCP in brief
Established in 1991, ODCCP is the organization spearheading international efforts aimed at fighting drug abuse and the drug trade. It supports and assists countries to:
• Eliminate illicit drug crops and replace them with other, legal crops and/or help farmers find alternative livelihoods;
• Draft and apply anti-drug legislation;
• Coordinate cross-border projects;
• Track drug patterns, alerting countries to the latest trends;
• Implement drug-abuse prevention programmes;
• Establish treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts;
• Combat trafficking through law enforcement programmes.Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP)
Vienna International Centre
P.O. Box 500, A-1400 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: (43-1) 213450
Website: http://www.undcp.org
E-mail: ODCCP_hq@undcp.un.or.at
