Press Briefing

Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to
Review Effectiveness of International Drug Control

Monday, 10 March 2008
Vienna International Centre (VIC)

VIENNA, 10 March (UN Information Service) -- UNIS Vienna held a press briefing on the opening of the 51 ^st session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The theme of this year's session is to "Review the Effectiveness of International Drug Control." Ambassador Eugenio Curia of Argentina, Chairman of CND, made the opening presentation as did Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director UNODC; other speakers on the podium were Carmelita Pires, Minister of Justice (Guinea-Bissau) and Pedro da Costa, Deputy Prime Minister (Guinea-Bissau). Nasra Hassan, UNIS Director, chaired and moderated the press briefing. The CND is the central policy-making body within the UN system dealing with drug-related matters; the 51 ^st session is being held at Vienna, from 10-14 March.

In his opening comments, Ambassador Curia welcomed the Argentine Minister of Justice, who was leading his country's delegation to the CND. He added that this year marked the 10 ^th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS). The Commission would, among other issues, assess the progress made with regard to drug control during the past ten years.  In his remarks, Mr. Costa highlighted that the biggest problem in dealing with the drug issue was convincing Member States that drug addiction was a health problem and it should be treated as such. He said that drug addiction should be recognized as a disease like alcoholism or HIV/AIDS.   He briefed the media on his opening comments to CND, emphasizing that there were not enough people in health services and too few resources for prevention treatment, and rehabilitation. He also encouraged Member States to respect human rights in implementing laws against drug trafficking.

Minister Pires said at the outset that Guinea-Bissau rejected the "narco State" label. She added that her country was facing a difficult economic situation and without the help of the international community, it would not be able to counter the drug problem. She added that elections were upcoming in Guinea-Bissau, and she hoped that the issue of drugs would not influence the outcome. She made reference to a conference held in Lisbon, Portugal in December 2007 to enlist international support to provide her country with the means to combat drug trafficking. She concluded by saying that Guinea-Bissau was doing its best to solve the problem.

The statements were followed by a Q&A session. In response to a question on concrete examples of what the international community could do to help her country, Ms. Pires said that, with the assistance of UNODC, Guinea-Bissau was implementing a counter-narcotics operation plan scheduled to run from 2007 - 2010.

The situation in Afghanistan was also one of the predominant topics of discussion during the Q&A period. Mr. Costa highlighted that the main problem in Afghanistan was insurgency. He pointed out that while the overall situation in Afghanistan remained grim, particularly in the Southern part of the country, there were 13 provinces which were opium-free.

Finally, throughout the briefing, Mr. Costa emphasized his belief that the worldwide drug problem has been 'contained'. He explained that the runaway drug problem as experienced in the 70s, 80s and 90s was controlled, especially heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs, and added that the international drug situation had stabilized over the last ten years.

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