UNODC Warns of Growing Abuse of
Synthetic Drugs in the Developing World
A report released on 9 September by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that the use of synthetic drugs, while stabilizing in most developed countries, is worsening in developing countries, for example in East and South-East Asia and the Middle East (especially in the Gulf countries).
UNODC’s 2008 Global Assessment of amphetamine, methamphetamine (meth) and ecstasy reveals that the use of these drugs, on an annual basis, exceeds that of cocaine and heroin combined. The global market for amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) is estimated at US$65 billion, wholesale and retail combined.
After substantial increases in the late 1990s -- when some drugs like meth were considered public enemy number one -- the use of synthetic drugs in North America, Europe and Oceania has stabilized and even declined. But the problem has shifted to new markets over the past few years.
Asia, with its huge population and increasing affluence, is driving demand. In 2006, almost half of Asian countries reported an increase in methamphetamine use. In the same year, Saudi Arabia seized more than 12 tonnes of amphetamine (mostly in the form known as Captagon) accounting for a staggering one quarter of all ATS seized in the world (sky-rocketing from 1% in 2000/1). In 2007 the amount increased again to almost 14 tonnes. In South Africa, the number of seized methamphetamine laboratories has consistently gone up for the past five years while domestic consumption has increased.
The wrong tonic for fast times
Launching the report in Bangkok, the Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, warned that ATS is being used as “a cheap and available tonic for our fast and competitive times -- for entertainment in discos (mostly in the West), and for greater stamina in assembly lines and behind a steering wheel (in the East)”.
Mr. Costa warned that “synthetic drugs are falsely perceived as being harmless: ‘pills do not kill or spread HIV/AIDS’, it is said. This leads to benign neglect in attitudes, policy and enforcement that only slows down remedial action”.
“This is dangerous”, said the head of UNODC, “because while users experience increased confidence, sociability and energy, they can quickly become dependent and suffer serious mental health problems or even brain damage. Paranoia, kidney failure, violence, internal bleeding are among the side effects of the drug”.
Adaptive and elusive suppliers
ATS production appears to have stabilized worldwide at about 500 metric tons per year, but with significant geographical differences: decreasing lab seizures in, for example, the United States and the European Union, have been offset by a rise in ATS production in neighbouring countries, like Canada and Mexico in North America, and Turkey in South-East Europe. Recently, the single largest seizure of ecstasy ever recorded, 4.4 tonnes, originating in Western Europe, was made in Australia (which is still struggling with a major synthetic drugs problem).
Unlike plant-based drugs like cocaine and heroin, the production of synthetic drugs is hard to trace since the ingredients are readily available for legitimate industrial purposes. Supply chains are often short. Meth can be cooked up in the kitchen, and pills can be pressed in a garage. “Suppliers quickly adapt to the latest trends, and cater to local markets. When one lab is shut, another opens. When one type of precursor chemical is unavailable, producers switch to an alternative”, said Mr. Costa. “This presents a challenge to law enforcement since production is so close to retail outlets”, observed the UN drugs czar. “Therefore, greater emphasis should be put on prevention”.
“A decade ago, synthetic drugs were a cottage industry. Now they are big business controlled by organized crime syndicates involved in all phases of this illicit trade -- from smuggling precursor chemicals, to manufacturing the drugs and trafficking”, warned the Executive Director of UNODC. This is bringing rapid changes in ATS markets, including in the size and sophistication of clandestine laboratories.
“Opium and coca are mostly grown in areas outside government control, for example in unstable regions of Afghanistan and Colombia. The same pattern applies to ATS. The Report shows the displacement of industrial-scale labs, which can produce hundreds of millions of tablets, to parts of the world where law enforcement is weak or corrupt, or local officials are complicit”, said Mr. Costa.
Lack of will, information, and resources
The countries facing the brunt of the ATS onslaught are also the least-prepared to cope. “Some countries are in denial about the problem, and do not even report their situation to the United Nations. Others are ill-equipped to fight the pandemic, in terms of information gathering, regulatory frameworks, law enforcement, forensics, or health care”, said Mr. Costa.
Information gathering presents a challenge. Supply estimates are extrapolated from seizures of precursors and ATS end-products; demand estimates from very rough-and-ready calculations of the number of people taking the drugs. Forensic research is needed to analyse and monitor evolving trends.
A SMART answer
“The world needs to get smart about ATS before the problem is out of control”, said Mr. Costa. In Bangkok, he therefore launched UNODC’s SMART programme (Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends). The Programme, which is starting operations in Asia, is designed to reduce the world’s information deficit about amphetamine-type stimulants. This will be done by working with governments – particularly in vulnerable regions – to improve their capacity to gather, analyse and share information on ATS products, their use, and on trafficking routes.
“This should give us a better sense of how big the problem of synthetic drugs really is, and what more can be done to deal with it in terms of prevention, treatment and law enforcement”, said Mr. Costa.
9.9.08
Tackle discrimination and inequality
Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stresses need
to tackle discrimination and inequality, and to prevent genocide
as 9th Session of the Human Rights Council opens
Geneva, 8 September 2008
The new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in her maiden speech to States attending the Human Rights Council on 8 September, highlighted the need to tackle discrimination and inequality, and urged greater efforts to prevent genocide, which she described as “the ultimate form of discrimination”.
Ms. Pillay, who spent eight years as a judge on the Rwanda Tribunal and five on the International Criminal Court in The Hague before taking up her post as High Commissioner on 1 September, noted that 2008 contained a number of important human rights milestones -- including the sixtieth anniversaries of the Genocide Convention on 9 December, and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the following day.
She reminded delegates attending the opening of the ninth session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that both the Universal Declaration and the Genocide Convention “grew out of the Holocaust, but we have yet to learn the lesson of the Holocaust, as genocide continues”.
Drawing on her extensive experience as a leading member of the emerging international justice system dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity, Ms. Pillay made a powerful call for a stronger focus on preventing genocide, as well as the “cycles of violence, the mobilization of fear and the political exploitation of difference – ethnic, racial and religious difference” that lead to it.
“Genocide is the ultimate form of discrimination”, she said. “We must all do everything in our power to prevent it. What I learned as a judge on the Rwanda Tribunal about the way in which one human being can abuse another will haunt me forever.”
Ms. Pillay, who was herself the victim of both racial and gender discrimination in Apartheid South Africa, said that development, security, peace and justice are all undermined “when discrimination and inequality -- both in blatant and subtle ways -- are allowed to fester and to poison harmonious coexistence”.
She urged States not to let “diverging points of view” deter them from taking part in a key anti-racism review conference (the Durban Review Conference) scheduled for April 2009. The conference process has been the subject of ferocious, and often distorted, criticism by certain lobby groups focused on single issues. “I do not believe that ‘all or nothing’ is the right approach to affirm one’s principles or to win an argument”, she said. “… The process will certainly benefit from active participation by all States … Should differences be allowed to become pretexts for inaction, the hopes and aspirations of the many victims of intolerance would be dashed perhaps irreparably.”
She said that Nelson Mandela had taught her that “far from being appeasement, coming to terms with other people’s experiences and points of view may serve the interest of justice better than strategies that leave no room for negotiation”.
In her speech, Ms. Pillay also noted that “rights to freedom of ex-pression, association and assembly, which are indispensable to the functioning of civil society, have come under sustained attack in all regions of the world”, and said that the press continued to be muzzled in too many countries.
to tackle discrimination and inequality, and to prevent genocide
as 9th Session of the Human Rights Council opens
Geneva, 8 September 2008
The new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in her maiden speech to States attending the Human Rights Council on 8 September, highlighted the need to tackle discrimination and inequality, and urged greater efforts to prevent genocide, which she described as “the ultimate form of discrimination”.
Ms. Pillay, who spent eight years as a judge on the Rwanda Tribunal and five on the International Criminal Court in The Hague before taking up her post as High Commissioner on 1 September, noted that 2008 contained a number of important human rights milestones -- including the sixtieth anniversaries of the Genocide Convention on 9 December, and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the following day.
She reminded delegates attending the opening of the ninth session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that both the Universal Declaration and the Genocide Convention “grew out of the Holocaust, but we have yet to learn the lesson of the Holocaust, as genocide continues”.
Drawing on her extensive experience as a leading member of the emerging international justice system dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity, Ms. Pillay made a powerful call for a stronger focus on preventing genocide, as well as the “cycles of violence, the mobilization of fear and the political exploitation of difference – ethnic, racial and religious difference” that lead to it.
“Genocide is the ultimate form of discrimination”, she said. “We must all do everything in our power to prevent it. What I learned as a judge on the Rwanda Tribunal about the way in which one human being can abuse another will haunt me forever.”
Ms. Pillay, who was herself the victim of both racial and gender discrimination in Apartheid South Africa, said that development, security, peace and justice are all undermined “when discrimination and inequality -- both in blatant and subtle ways -- are allowed to fester and to poison harmonious coexistence”.
She urged States not to let “diverging points of view” deter them from taking part in a key anti-racism review conference (the Durban Review Conference) scheduled for April 2009. The conference process has been the subject of ferocious, and often distorted, criticism by certain lobby groups focused on single issues. “I do not believe that ‘all or nothing’ is the right approach to affirm one’s principles or to win an argument”, she said. “… The process will certainly benefit from active participation by all States … Should differences be allowed to become pretexts for inaction, the hopes and aspirations of the many victims of intolerance would be dashed perhaps irreparably.”
She said that Nelson Mandela had taught her that “far from being appeasement, coming to terms with other people’s experiences and points of view may serve the interest of justice better than strategies that leave no room for negotiation”.
In her speech, Ms. Pillay also noted that “rights to freedom of ex-pression, association and assembly, which are indispensable to the functioning of civil society, have come under sustained attack in all regions of the world”, and said that the press continued to be muzzled in too many countries.
8.9.08
Seventy-five million children are not in school
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY
8 September 2008
Message of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
One in five adults -- some 774 million -- is illiterate, and thus lives with no access to the vast global store of written communication. Seventy-five million children are not in school and millions more young people leave school without a level of literacy adequate for productive and active participation in society. These would be devastating numbers at any time, for individuals and societies alike; that they occur in the context of today’s information society should drive home the urgency of efforts to promote literacy throughout the world.
The theme of this year’s observance of International Literacy Day, “Literacy and Health”, is meant to draw more attention to the links between the two. Illiteracy has a direct impact on human health. It prevents people from being able to read the instructions on a medicine bottle. It means that people are less likely to know facts about AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases. And because two thirds of those who are illiterate are women and girls, who often bear the burden of caring for sick members of their families, it means that they will be less likely to know about prevention and support services, and how to use life-saving medicines and other treatments.
To increase literacy skills, well-defined policies and increased investment will be essential. Literacy is indispensable for achieving the Millennium Development Goals targeting maternal health and combating HIV and malaria, and for addressing some of the world’s most important public health challenges. On this International Literacy Day, let us all -- Governments, the United Nations family, donors and civil society -- translate this commitment into more vigorous action. Literacy for all will benefit us all.
8 September 2008
Message of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
One in five adults -- some 774 million -- is illiterate, and thus lives with no access to the vast global store of written communication. Seventy-five million children are not in school and millions more young people leave school without a level of literacy adequate for productive and active participation in society. These would be devastating numbers at any time, for individuals and societies alike; that they occur in the context of today’s information society should drive home the urgency of efforts to promote literacy throughout the world.
The theme of this year’s observance of International Literacy Day, “Literacy and Health”, is meant to draw more attention to the links between the two. Illiteracy has a direct impact on human health. It prevents people from being able to read the instructions on a medicine bottle. It means that people are less likely to know facts about AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases. And because two thirds of those who are illiterate are women and girls, who often bear the burden of caring for sick members of their families, it means that they will be less likely to know about prevention and support services, and how to use life-saving medicines and other treatments.
To increase literacy skills, well-defined policies and increased investment will be essential. Literacy is indispensable for achieving the Millennium Development Goals targeting maternal health and combating HIV and malaria, and for addressing some of the world’s most important public health challenges. On this International Literacy Day, let us all -- Governments, the United Nations family, donors and civil society -- translate this commitment into more vigorous action. Literacy for all will benefit us all.
Health Minister India please help kids
Making teens start school in the morning is 'cruel', brain doctor claims
Last updated at 00:22am on 12.01.07
Add your view
Teenage pupils should start school in the afternoon because making them turn up in the morning is "cruel", a top brain doctor has claimed.
Professor Russell Foster said teens would acheive more if they were allowed to have a lie-in and not start their classes until the afternoon.
The Oxford University neuroscientist said grumpy teenagers like Harry Enfield's comic creation Kevin follow different sleep patterns from adults - making them more alert in the afternoon than in the morning.
And he said German and American schools which switched to later start times had experienced improved success in exams and reduced rates of truancy and depression.
Prof Foster said that forcing teenagers to turn up to school in the morning could result in more errors, poor memory, reduced motivation and depression.
Allowing secondary school pupils a lie-in on the other hand would improve performance in key subjects like English and maths.
"It is cruel to impose a cultural pattern on teenagers that makes them underachieve," he told a conference at the University of Wales in Cardiff.
"Most school regimes force teenagers to function at a time of day that is suboptimal and many university students are exposed to considerable dangers from sleep deprivation."
Prof Foster, Oxford University's head of circadian neuroscience - the study of how the daily routine affects the brain - said the time at which children become fully awake gets progressively later as they get older. The pattern continues until the age of 20, when it begins to reverse, making adults more alert in the mornings.
His comments back up research published last year which recommended that schools and universities should not start until 11am because teenagers were in a "permament state of jet-lag".
The American study found that teenagers' biological clocks run later because a hormone known as melatonin, which promotes sleepiness, starts to be secreted in the brain much later than in adults.
The researchers found that students' performance in exams also went down when they sat them in the morning compared to the afternoon.
Prof Foster said: "Teenagers' body clocks can be delayed between two and four hours and they don't start to function until 10am or as late as noon.
"Studies in Germany and America show that when schools have changes start times to later, exam success has gone up and truancy and depression gone down."
He said the problem was worse in Britain where many students work long hours in part-time jobs to finance their degrees.
But teachers' leaders disagreed with the Prof Foster's views - saying they believed pupils performed better in the mornings.
National Association of Head Teachers director Anna Brychan said: "Our members are interested in anything which throws new light on the best way of helping young people develop their creative faculties.
"But many teachers will say they find their classes infinitely more receptive to new ideas in the mornings than in the afternoons."
NASUWT teacher's union official Geraint Davies said: "Schools have been trying to tackle this issue for years but have found pupils are more attentive in the morning."
Reader views (9)
Add your view
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I personally agree with Professor Russell Foster's statement. I feel more tired and unable to think in the morning time, but the afternoon I start to feel more awake and able to think better.
"But many teachers will say they find their classes infinitely more receptive to new ideas in the mornings than in the afternoons."
Sure in the morning one may be more accepting to ideas, but that's only because they are too sleepy to protest them, or at least I know that's true for me. I'll agree to almost anything to avoid thinking in the morning time, it's also the time my parents can ask me to do something and I won't say "no" right off the bat. Because I just want them to leave me alone so I can close my eyes again.
- Allie, United States
I like prof Foster statement. Me personally at attending a high school find it very hard to function in the morning. Schools will find a dramatic increase in grades if they start school later.
- Zack Rogers, toronto, canada
I think it is a great idea for high school to start later, I wrote a paper on it and it would helps students a lot! It is proven that they get better grades and they need more sleep! Parents also love it because the unsupervised time is in the morning when the teens are sleeping and not after school.
- Dana, United States
Professor Russell Foster's observation about teens is okay but it will be more effective for kids and for their parents as morning hours must be peaceful and without any noise. As morning shows the day PEACE in the morning means a GREAT DAY untouched by depression/fatigue. Hope some good people help the kids of the world by providing them more relax moments in the morning.
- Ganesh Upadhyay, India
It would help with traffic congestion in rush hour and help working parents, if they started later and finished later.
It sounds mad, but if it works. Go with it.
- Paul Jardine, Bromley, Kent
Now what muppet came up with this one? As if kids aren't lazy enough!
- Jay, London
They should be made to have a big sing song before they start their work, that always woke me up in the morning!
- Isabel, Woking, England
Making anyone start work earlier than a couple of hours after sunrise is cruel (to say nothing of unnatural). Nevertheless, we have electric light, and the work needs doing.
Life can be cruel. Get used to it!
- Nigel, London
They'll get up at 10am instead of 7am, and be going to sleep at 1 am instead of 10pm. So what's gained? And with their daily cycle so out-of-whack with their parents' work cycle, the whole idea is nonsensical.
- Phil Jones, London UK
Last updated at 00:22am on 12.01.07
Add your view
Teenage pupils should start school in the afternoon because making them turn up in the morning is "cruel", a top brain doctor has claimed.
Professor Russell Foster said teens would acheive more if they were allowed to have a lie-in and not start their classes until the afternoon.
The Oxford University neuroscientist said grumpy teenagers like Harry Enfield's comic creation Kevin follow different sleep patterns from adults - making them more alert in the afternoon than in the morning.
And he said German and American schools which switched to later start times had experienced improved success in exams and reduced rates of truancy and depression.
Prof Foster said that forcing teenagers to turn up to school in the morning could result in more errors, poor memory, reduced motivation and depression.
Allowing secondary school pupils a lie-in on the other hand would improve performance in key subjects like English and maths.
"It is cruel to impose a cultural pattern on teenagers that makes them underachieve," he told a conference at the University of Wales in Cardiff.
"Most school regimes force teenagers to function at a time of day that is suboptimal and many university students are exposed to considerable dangers from sleep deprivation."
Prof Foster, Oxford University's head of circadian neuroscience - the study of how the daily routine affects the brain - said the time at which children become fully awake gets progressively later as they get older. The pattern continues until the age of 20, when it begins to reverse, making adults more alert in the mornings.
His comments back up research published last year which recommended that schools and universities should not start until 11am because teenagers were in a "permament state of jet-lag".
The American study found that teenagers' biological clocks run later because a hormone known as melatonin, which promotes sleepiness, starts to be secreted in the brain much later than in adults.
The researchers found that students' performance in exams also went down when they sat them in the morning compared to the afternoon.
Prof Foster said: "Teenagers' body clocks can be delayed between two and four hours and they don't start to function until 10am or as late as noon.
"Studies in Germany and America show that when schools have changes start times to later, exam success has gone up and truancy and depression gone down."
He said the problem was worse in Britain where many students work long hours in part-time jobs to finance their degrees.
But teachers' leaders disagreed with the Prof Foster's views - saying they believed pupils performed better in the mornings.
National Association of Head Teachers director Anna Brychan said: "Our members are interested in anything which throws new light on the best way of helping young people develop their creative faculties.
"But many teachers will say they find their classes infinitely more receptive to new ideas in the mornings than in the afternoons."
NASUWT teacher's union official Geraint Davies said: "Schools have been trying to tackle this issue for years but have found pupils are more attentive in the morning."
Reader views (9)
Add your view
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I personally agree with Professor Russell Foster's statement. I feel more tired and unable to think in the morning time, but the afternoon I start to feel more awake and able to think better.
"But many teachers will say they find their classes infinitely more receptive to new ideas in the mornings than in the afternoons."
Sure in the morning one may be more accepting to ideas, but that's only because they are too sleepy to protest them, or at least I know that's true for me. I'll agree to almost anything to avoid thinking in the morning time, it's also the time my parents can ask me to do something and I won't say "no" right off the bat. Because I just want them to leave me alone so I can close my eyes again.
- Allie, United States
I like prof Foster statement. Me personally at attending a high school find it very hard to function in the morning. Schools will find a dramatic increase in grades if they start school later.
- Zack Rogers, toronto, canada
I think it is a great idea for high school to start later, I wrote a paper on it and it would helps students a lot! It is proven that they get better grades and they need more sleep! Parents also love it because the unsupervised time is in the morning when the teens are sleeping and not after school.
- Dana, United States
Professor Russell Foster's observation about teens is okay but it will be more effective for kids and for their parents as morning hours must be peaceful and without any noise. As morning shows the day PEACE in the morning means a GREAT DAY untouched by depression/fatigue. Hope some good people help the kids of the world by providing them more relax moments in the morning.
- Ganesh Upadhyay, India
It would help with traffic congestion in rush hour and help working parents, if they started later and finished later.
It sounds mad, but if it works. Go with it.
- Paul Jardine, Bromley, Kent
Now what muppet came up with this one? As if kids aren't lazy enough!
- Jay, London
They should be made to have a big sing song before they start their work, that always woke me up in the morning!
- Isabel, Woking, England
Making anyone start work earlier than a couple of hours after sunrise is cruel (to say nothing of unnatural). Nevertheless, we have electric light, and the work needs doing.
Life can be cruel. Get used to it!
- Nigel, London
They'll get up at 10am instead of 7am, and be going to sleep at 1 am instead of 10pm. So what's gained? And with their daily cycle so out-of-whack with their parents' work cycle, the whole idea is nonsensical.
- Phil Jones, London UK
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About Me
- BIHAR DESK
- I am a journalist and a social activist with a strong rural background. I work with a national level media house that has its publication from New Delhi, Mumbai, and Patna and caters to the news need of the State. I am always willing to work for the economically underprivileged people of the nation. bihardesk@gmail.com