Drug abuse is on the decline in the United States but its effects remain grim worldwide, with heroin and cocaine addiction a growing problem in several regions, a U.N. panel said Monday.
The International Narcotics Control Board, in its annual report, also noted wide differences in the number of intravenous drug users testing positive for the AIDS virus across Europe, according to country.A breakdown, by region, of the 13-member panel's report:
- Drug abuse in the United States continued to decline. From 1988 to 1991, the number of abusers dropped from an estimated 14.5 million to 12.6 million. Yet cocaine use rose. In 1991, abusers were estimated at 1.9 million, compared to 1.6 million a year earlier. The abuse of crack, which had fallen as much as 50 percent since 1989, leveled off.
Canadian authorities seized increased amounts of heroin and cocaine in 1991. At 1.2 tons, cocaine confiscations were double that of the previous year.
-The report noted wide disparities in the percentage of intravenous drug users testing positive for the HIV virus in Europe. For Britain, it was up to 5 percent; Germany, 20 percent; Netherlands 30 percent; Spain 40-60 percent; France 58 percent, and Italy 30-80 percent.
LSD abuse seemed to be on the rise, judging from a fourfold increase in seizures across the continent.
- In Africa, drug abuse and trafficking continued to increase in 1992, and "if effective steps are not take soon, illicit trafficking and drug abuse will (further) escalate."
The report notes the recent appearance of intravenous heroin use - "a new and worrying development in Africa." It says several countries have reported an increase in previously sporadic cocaine use, with seizures in 1991 six times that of 1990.
- In East and Southeast Asia, heroin traffickers are making inroads north into China, which, in turn is a transit country for shipments to Hong Kong and Macao. Heroin addiction has grown as a result.
Burma remained the world's largest producer of opium and heroin, while the Philippines continued to be an important transit point for foreign syndicates smuggling heroin from Thailand to Australia, the United States and Europe.
- Cocaine and heroin remained abundant in Australia, but an anti-drug campaign started in 1985 "was found to be effectively achieving its objectives," the report says without offering details.