Treat drug use as illness rather than crime, UN drug chief saysPolice urged to target traffickers instead of users28 million 'physically or psychologically' drug-dependent

Drug use should be treated more as an illness than a crime, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said as he claimed a decline in the production of cocaine and heroin worldwide.

"People who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution," said Antonio Maria Costa, director of UNODC, calling for universal access to drug treatment. Since people with serious drug problems provided the bulk of drug demand, treating this problem was one of the best ways of shrinking the market.

His call for international law enforcement to target traffickers rather than users came as it was announced that there is a worldwide growth in synthetic drugs.

Drug law reformers saw Costa's words as a significant sign in the debate over the "war on drugs". However, he said that legalisation was not the answer.

Opium and cocaine production

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan, where 93% of the world's opium is grown, declined 19% in 2008, according to the UN world drug report. In Colombia, which produces half of the world's cocaine, cultivation of coca fell 18% while production declined 28% compared with 2007. Global coca production, at 845 tonnes, was said to be at a five-year low, despite some increases in cultivation in Peru and Bolivia.

Stronger cannabis

Cannabis remains the most widely cultivated and used drug around the world, although estimates are less precise. Data also show that it is more harmful than commonly believed, said the report.

The average THC content (the harmful psychotropic component) of hydroponic marijuana in North America almost doubled in the past decade. "This has major health implications as evidenced by a significant rise in the number of people seeking treatment," said the report.

The world's biggest markets for cannabis were North America, Oceania, and western Europe. For cocaine, North America and some parts of western Europe remain the main markets, with the UK having the highest number of users and Spain the highest number per capita and the largest number of seizures. The report accepted that data for developing countries was sketchy.

Roughly 167 million users tried cannabis at least once in 2007. Among the findings of the report was a decline in cannabis use among young people in Europe. This was seen by the report's lead author, Dr Sandeep Chawla, as a reaction to concerns about the potential side-effects of the much stronger strains of the drug, particularly skunk.

Drug seizures

The report concluded that: illegal drug seizures were up in 2007 and all drug seizure totals were close to all-time highs; approximately 28 million people are heavy users who are likely to be "physically or psychologically dependent" on drugs; opiates and cocaine have around 18 million users each; an estimated 11 million to 21 million people worldwide inject drugs; between 16 million and 50 million people were amphetamine-group users in the past year, and about 17 million people took ecstasy.

Costa called for "an end to the tragedy of cities out of control". In the same way that most illicit cultivation takes place in regions out of government control, most drugs are sold in city neighbourhoods where public order has broken down. "Housing, jobs, education, public services, and recreation can make communities less vulnerable to drugs and crime," he added.

Tackling organised crime

He said that governments should enforce international agreements against organised crime but international crime-fighting instruments like the UN conventions against organised crime and corruption were not being used.

"Too many states have crime problems of their own making," said Costa. "Current instruments to tackle money laundering and cybercrime are inadequate."

Changes were taking place in many of the markets, the report suggests. "The $50bn global cocaine market is undergoing seismic shifts. Purity levels and seizures [in main consumer countries] are down, prices are up, and consumption patterns are in flux. This may help explain the gruesome upsurge of violence in countries like Mexico. In Central America, cartels are fighting for a shrinking market."

Legalisation

Costa acknowledged that controls have generated an illicit black market that uses violence and corruption but said that legalising drugs would be "a historic mistake". He encouraged police to focus on the small number of high-profile, high-volume, and violent criminals instead of the large volumes of petty offenders.

In some countries, the ratio of people imprisoned for drug use compared with drug trafficking was five to one. "This is a waste of money for the police, and a waste of lives for those thrown in jail. Go after the piranhas, not the minnows," said Costa.

Conclusions challenged

The report's conclusions were challenged by Transform, a British drugs charity with special consultative status with the UN.

"Despite the ongoing attempts to put a positive spin on the data there is no hiding from the reality that the era of global drug prohibition, enshrined in the three UN drug conventions (1961, 1971 and 1988), has witnessed a consistent escalation in harms associated with illicit drug production, supply and use," said Danny Kushlick, head of policy at Transform.

"The UNODC will go through its annual charade of telling the world that it has 'contained' the drug problem and that they finally have organised crime gangs in their sights. But even their own propaganda cannot disguise the shocking long-term failure of international drug control efforts or disguise the fact that the UNODC oversees the system that gifts the vast illegal drug market to violent criminal profiteers, with disastrous consequences."