KT NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, Mar 2 : A UN affiliated international organization has expressed concern at the re-emergence of opium and poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and has warned that the drug situation in Iraq may deteriorate because of political and economic instability.
It has also asked nations to clamp down on internet drug selling and devise means to end demand rather just focus on choking supplies of drugs.
Presenting its annual report here on Wednesday at the UN regional headquarters, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) enumerated that opium cultivation has gone up by geometric proportion in Afghanistan since the ouster of Taliban regime.
Last year, a whooping 4200 MT of poppy was cultivated in Afghanistan against 190 MT in 2001.
The report said that drug abuse in the form of consumption of injections and heroin has also increased in that country.
Offlate, Afghanistan has also become a major source of cannabis resin for illicit market in West Asia and a destination for smuggled psychotropic substances and precursors.
Vice President of the INCB M.
Bhatnagar told media that India has become the largest illicit manufacturer of methaqualone (Mandrax) in the world.
Due to India's large chemical industry base, it has also emerged a manufacturer of a wide variety of precursor chemicials, including ephedrine, pseud-oephedrine and other psychotropic substances.
Saying that the hilly tracts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal have witnessed illicit cultivation of opium and cannabis, the report said that controls over trade and manufacture of narcotic drugs in the country was inadequate.
Gary Lewis, Representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), who also gave a presentation said though India and Turkey were the only countries granted international license to produce opiated drugs, there have been diversion of pharmaceutical products to narcotic market.
The report said that India had 40 million drug abusers as against 28.8 million in Europe in 2004.
It further said that HIV infection associated with injecting drug use was also increasing as a result of a shift from opium abuse to heroin abuse.
Besides the re-emergence of methaqualone, quite recently limited abuse of MDMA (ecstasy drug) has also been reported from various parts of country.
Noting that there has been a resurgence of illicit opium cultivation in Pakistan, the Board has asked the Government of Pakistan to take necessary steps to monitor the domestic manufacture and distribution, while ensuring sufficient availability of accessibility to controlled drugs for medical purpose.
The Board has also asked Islamabad to decide as soon as possible the future of the Opium Alkaloid Factory.
