SOUTH
CHINA MORNING POST
Post
MAY 5th 1973.
Growing use of narcotics
United Nations, May 4. United Nations members reported yesterday that drug addiction is increasing round the world, even in poor countries, but that heroin
use in the United States has declined for the first time in nine years.
France also reported a fall in heroin use. But said the use of Marijuana and the mind- expanding drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was in creasing.
"In the U.S." said the American spokesman, Mr Harvey Wellman, "the heroin
addiction rate has registered its first decline since 1964."
ile attributed this to tougher law enforcement and expanded treatment of addicts.
But as the social committee of the U.N. Economic and Social Council opened its discussion on narcotic drugs, a report showed growing use of drugs throughout the world.
The
report, by the International Narcotics Control Board, said the scope of drug abuse widened and became more complex in 1972.
**The most disturbing aspect." it said, "has been the
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increasing resort to heroin, not only in industriahsed coun- tries but also in developing countries, where it infects the members younger
of the population."
However, the Board reported progress in international co- operation to combat drug dealing, especially in the main production areas in the near East, South and Southeast Asia.
Mr Wellman said the U.S. and other governments seized more than 800 tons of drugs in 1972, more than twice the amount confiscated in the previous year. He also said 19,000 traffickers had been arrested in 1972.
The French delegate, Mr Andre Travert, said that although heroin addiction fell. there were still about 20,000 addicts in his country, many of them using other drugs. Most of them, he said, were young urban residents.
Sir Harry Greenfield, the President of the Narcotics Board, said cocaine use was apparently increasing. especially in Latin America.
The United Nations created a special fund two years ago to finance switches in developing countries from such narcotic crops as poppies, the flower that is processed to become heroin, as well as other projects devoted to combatting the drug traffic. So far, the fund has drawn U.S.$5.6 million in pledges.
- UPI.