UN narcotics watchdog sees new drug pandemic

By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) – The synthetic drug methamphetamine has
become a greater concern in the United States and other
countries than heroin or cocaine, the U.N. narcotics watchdog
said on Wednesday.

Sold on the street in various forms known as ‘meth’,
‘speed’ and ‘ice’, the drug has spread from Southeast Asia to
parts of the world where it was virtually unknown until
recently, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB)
said.

The spread to Africa and eastern Europe is fueled by the
ability of traffickers to obtain legally two chemicals needed
to make it, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, the INCB said in its
2005 report.

“Methamphetamine is pandemic now,” INCB President Hamid
Ghodse told reporters ahead of the report’s release. “The major
problem that they have (in the United States) is with
methamphetamine.”

In the United States the use of cannabis, cocaine and
ecstasy is falling, the INCB said.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lists brain damage
and psychotic behavior on its Web site as some of the possible
effects of methamphetamine use.

One way methamphetamine ingredients are shipped to labs is
by post as unlicensed Internet pharmacies sell billions of
doses of medicines illegally each year and deliver them by
post.

“The phenomenon is growing not only in size but also … in
terms of the number of countries involved,” INCB Secretary Koli
Kouame told a news conference.

Besides drugs such as cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, legal
pharmaceutical drugs, some stronger than morphine, are also
shipped by post without prescriptions particularly in America,
the INCB said.

“The value of such pharmaceutical drugs smuggled via the
postal system is estimated to be in hundreds of millions of
U.S. dollars,” it added.

The INCB recommended limiting the number of entry points
for parcels into countries and introducing scanning equipment.