UN urges more community intervention against drug trafficking

The United Nations has urged countries to pay more attention to the growing link between drug trafficking and abuse, and the development of violence and crime within their local communities. Speaking in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday, Crysten Hyttel, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representative in Kenya, said community based drug abuse prevention programmes and policing were a critical component in the fight against drugs. "The very fabric of society is challenged by the continued presence in communities of drug-related crime," Hyttel said. Hyttel was speaking at the launch of a 2003 annual report by the Austrian-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). The report highlights trends and challenges of drug trafficking and abuse. It recommends measures to control narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Cannabis, the report said, continued to be the most widely abused and trafficked drug in much of Africa. It said surveys conducted in the conflict zones of West and Central Africa indicated that arms and ammunition used by rebel groups and criminal organisations may have been partially financed from the proceeds of illicit drug trafficking. The INCB highlighted the plight of drug abusers, who themselves often were victims of violence and crime usually perpetrated by criminals and sometimes by law enforcers. Drug abuse, it said, led to a heightened risk of victimisation, in which abusers were exposed to situations where violence and the use of firearms in connection with drug trafficking were normal. "Communities that suffer disproportionate levels of violent drug-related crime also suffer higher levels of other criminality and the disruption of civil society associated with it," the UNODC representative added. Launching the report, Kivutha Kibwana, an assistant minister in the office of the Kenyan president, referred to a growing segment of Kenyan youth who were abusing drugs, particularly glue-sniffing children. He said the general increase in consumption of illegal drugs in Kenya was linked to a rising trend of insecurity in the streets of major towns, rioting and destruction of property by students in educational institutions, as well as corruption and money laundering. "There is a clear link between substance abuse and violence in the community and general insecurity in our streets," Kibwana said. "Drug abuse has become a catalyst for indiscipline in our educational institutions." Kibwana said although up to 3,200 people had been arrested and charged with trafficking, and a total of 8,371 kg of cannabis seized by police in 2003, the war against drugs was still far from won. The other most widely abused drugs in Kenya include alcohol, khat, tobacco, and industrial solvents such as glue, according to Kibwana. Kenya, he added, was also a major international transit point for hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, which were increasingly being abused by Kenyan youths in urban centres. Joseph Kaguthi, the coordinator of the National Agency for the Campaign against Drug Abuse, complained that drugs were freely being distributed in schools by well-known people, but few of the pedlars had been arrested. "We are likely to be sitting on a very dangerous situation, as long as we continue to take the situation lightly," Kaguthi said. Denis Heineman, a local anti-drug activist, said substance abuse could be responsible for over 70 percent of risky sexual behaviour that had led to the high (over 15 percent) prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country. "I am disappointed that substance abuse has not been declared a national disaster," Heinemann told the launch. The INCB report urged governments to implement "comprehensive" policies focusing on reduction of demand for drugs, especially among the youth, and paying special attention to the prevention of drug abuse, using a range of social, economic and law enforcement measures in order to successfully combat the problem. "Only with the introduction of a comprehensive demand-reduction programme will we see real progress being made to address the multiple problems that illicit drugs inflict on their communities," it said.