United Nations Drug Control
Dec 22 2005
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Publication of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) have published the results of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken. Information was collected from 22 cities in 19 countries about how cocaine and other coca leaf derivatives are used, who uses them, what effects they have on the users and the community, and how governments have responded to the cocaine problem. From the coca leaf chewers of the Andes to the crack smokers of New York and Lagos, from cocaine injectors in Sao Paulo and San Francisco to cocaine sniffers in Sydney and Cairo, all aspects of the problem have been tackled by the many research workers from various countries who took part in the study, which was supported by the Italian Ministry of the Interior. The sometimes unexpected conclusions of the study do not represent an official position of WHO. During the World Summit on Drugs held in London in April 1990, Dr Hiroshi Nakajima, DirectorGeneral of WHO, announced the WHO Initiative on Cocaine. This project, launched in 1991 by the WHO Programme on Substance Abuse in collaboration with UNICRI, was designed to collect as much information as possible on cocaine use from a selection of countries around the world and to investigate the effectiveness of policies and strategies which address cocaine-related problems. Four categories of countries were selected for the study: those which grow coca and which now have cocaine-related problems, those which do not grow it but have substantial numbers of cocaine users and cocaine-related problems, those where cocaine use is not so widespread but is already on the increase, and those where cocaine use as yet presents no problem. One of the main conclusions of the study is that there is no "average cocaine user": there is an enormous variety in the types of people who use cocaine, the amount of drug used, the frequency of use, the duration and intensity of use, the reasons for using cocaine and any associated problems that users experience. The study reveals that the snorting of cocaine hydrochloride is by far the most popular use of coca products worldwide, while the smoking of coca paste and crack, and the injection of cocaine hydrochloride, are minority behaviours and tend to be found among the socially marginalized. The traditional use of coca leaves is still widespread among some indigenous populations in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, northern Chile and Argentina, as well as some groups in Brazil and Colombia. The authors of the study stress that the methods developed for their project can be used to collect information on cocaine use in other countries and also on the use of other drugs in order to monitor future trends and take necessary control measures. They also stress that education, treatment and rehabilitation programmes need to be increased to counterbalance what they see as the current over reliance on law enforcement measures. All too often, they believe, educational and prevention programmes do not dispel myths about the problem but perpetuate stereotyping and misinformation. One of the recommendations they make to WHO, is to ensure that the cocaine problem is taken into account by all the Organization's Member States within the expended national strategies for drug abuse control and in health plans. For further information please contact Mr Philippe Stroot, Health Communications and Public Relations (INF), VMO, Geneva. Phone (4122) 791 2535. Fax (4122) 791 4858. Bolivian Health Minister Vows to Press Legalization of Coca Bolivian Health Minister Carlos Dabdoub vowed to press for legalization of coca leaf tea and other raw coca preparations during the annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva this May (Andean Commission of Jurists, "Coca Leaf Defended At WHO Meeting," Drug Trafficking Update 37, May 1993). Jabdoub said he does not seek cocaine legalization, but legalization of coca tea, infusions, and other coca by-products for medicinal and beverage use. Coca tea is legal in Bolivia, where it may be purchased at markets much as regular tea may be purchased in the United States. International legalization of coca would require revision of the 1961 Vienna Agreement, which classified the leaf as a narcotic, and accorded it legal status similar to refined cocaine. By legalizing coca, campesinos who depend on coca growing for a living could remain legally employed, while the problem of excess coca used for cocaine could be approached by providing employment alternatives, Dabdoub contended. On April 17 and 18, coca leaf growers and consumers from Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru met in Cuzco, Peru at Machu Picchu, considered to be "the origin and root of the plant and the heart of the Andean universe," according to the Drug Trafficking Update 37 report. Participants held a ceremony declaring coca a "symbol of all of our struggles against the exploitation of our human and natural resources by the irrational greed of major capital and financial oligarchies, including drug trafficking." The Machu Picchu meeting issued a declaration, stating in part that: "The West, represented by the United States ... is trying to carry out a definitive genocide and ethnocide against Andean people by eliminating and eradicating our coca leaf. "They cannot do so. The eradication of the coca leaf would mean death for Andean people. Coca is everything for us, our material survival, our myths, our cosmic vision of the world, the joy we find in life, the voice of our ancestors, and perpetual dialogue with Pachamama, our reason for existing and being in the world... "To carry out their goal the United States blames the Andean coca producing nations for the spiritual diseases that are wracking the nation, confusing coca with cocaine. Our peoples did not invent, nor do they use cocaine. It was the industrialized West that created the drug... "For this reason we hope that the United Nations will soon lift the condemning veto against the leaf and rectify a scientific, cultural, and human error. I.J.S. policy not limited to borders [excerpt] The U.S. influence was strong enough to kill years' worth of research. In 1995, the World Health Organization was about to publish the results of "the largest global study of cocaine ever undertaken," a four-year project covering 22 cities in 19 countries. But the United States took issue with some of the findings. Among them: that chewing coca leaves, as Andean farmers have done for centuries, appeared to cause no health problems, and that cocaine appeared to be less harmful than alcohol and tobacco. "The United States government has been surprised to note that the (study) seemed to make a case for the positive uses of cocaine," according to minutes of a meeting in Geneva where the U.S. representative, Neil Boyer, raised the American concerns. Boyer warned, "If WHO activities ... failed to reinforce proven drug control approaches, funds for the relevant programs should be curtailed." Under U. S. pressure, the World Health Organization withheld the study and agreed to appoint a committee to review the findings. In the end, no report on global cocaine use was ever issued. "I think there were suspicions that the experts who did the study were selected because their views on the subject were known in advance," he said. But those involved in the study say it was based on objective research. Among the internationally known experts were a top AIDS researcher at New York's Beth Israel Medical Center and the founder of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. "The original panel consisted of a number of people who had done cocaine research that had been scientifically vetted, funded, published and peer-reviewed -- all the usual standards," said Patricia Erickson, a University of Toronto professor who was among the researchers. "Of course, many of the findings have gone totally against the image of cocaine as this evil drug that enslaves people. This is 1920s mythology. Sure, cocaine can get people in trouble and there are reasons to be concerned about it, but we found that people who otherwise are working and doing other things could use it recreationally. The study was not aimed at making cocaine look bad but getting a sense of the whole spectrum of how it was used in other countries." Losing The War On Drugs, Part la [excerpt] The UN's World Health Organization was subjected to intense U.S. pressure when it commissioned a report on cocaine use in the early 1990s. Two years of research involving dozens of experts in 22 cities and 19 countries led to a finished report in 1995. On March 15 of that year, the WHO issued a news release announcing the publication of the results. The project, the WHO proudly noted in the news release, was the "the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken." But the VMO never issued the report. WHO spokesperson Gregoyr Hartl says that after the news release was issued, the organization asked a number of experts to peer-review the report. After "two to three years," some of the experts reported back and the WHO decided the report was "technically unsound" -- despite the fact that in 1995, responding to complaints from the U.S., the WHO had defended the report as "important and objective." The WHO has no plans to do further research on cocaine. The unreleased document, a copy of which was obtained by the Citizen, is critical of existing drug policies and many of the beliefs about cocaine that support those policies. Among its startling conclusions: - - "Occasional cocaine" use, not "intensive" or "compulsive" consumption, is "the most typical pattern of cocaine use." According to the former UNDCP official, this landmark report was withheld because the U. S. pressed the WHO to bury it. If it was released, American officials warned, the U.S. would pull its funding from the section of WHO responsible for the report. The U.S. State Department told the Citizen it was unable to comment on this allegation. However, WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl confirms that this threat was made. In a May 1995 meeting, according to the WHO's records, Neil Boyer, the American representative to the organization, "took the view that ... ( the WHO's ) program on substance abuse was headed in the wrong direction." As proof, Mr. Boyer cited the cocaine study, along with "evidence of WHO's support for harmreduction programs and previous WHO association with organizations that supported the legalization of drugs." Knowing the perils of crossing the U.S., UN officials take great care if they feel they must. The former UNDCP official cites the case of a Brazilian needle-exchange -- another "harm reduction" policy which the U.S. has opposed -- funded by the UNDCP and the World Bank. "We just had to keep it quiet, we had to keep it from the knowledge of the Americans." Australia's Dr. Pennington thinks public health officials around the world are increasingly dissenting from a status quo that sees criminal prohibition as central to drug policy. Friction is growing, he believes, between officials who want to try novel approaches, such as harm reduction methods, and the American government, with its insistence on sticking strictly to the war on drugs. Some day, the nations of the world may finally hold an open debate on the wisdom of international drug prohibition. |
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