TNAG-0415-FCO40-461-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 20

"Drug addiction has become a major domestic problem in the United States. But we can never solve the problem at home unless we can succeed in winning comprehensive and effective cooperation abroad.

“The basic reason why our campaign against drug abuse depends so greatly on our international diplomacy is a simple one. Much of the production and processing of illicit narcotics and other dangerous drugs takes place, not in the United States, but in other countries."

While the drug problem is of crisis proportions in the United States, it is also evident that heroin addiction and other forms of drug abuse are spreading elsewhere in this hemisphere, in Europe, and in other parts of the world. From our discussions with foreign govern- ment representatives we have perceived a growing recognition of drug abuse as a worldwide problem. Under the direction of the Cabinet Committee, our Federal agencies have worked in close harmony on a country-by-country basis and within the framework of multilateral programs to promote a worldwide attack against drug abuse.

In the multilateral area, we are proud of our leadership role in the adoption by a U.N. Conference in March 1972 of the Protccol amending and strengthening the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs; the Protocol was ratified by the United States on November 1, 1972. Moreover, we have been the chief contributor to the U.N. Fund for Drug Abuse Control, pledging our third million dollars on October 4, 1972.

We have promoted cooperation among nations participating in regional groups and conferences. Closest to home, the Bureau of Nar- cotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) has taken part in tripartite meetings with law enforcement officials from Canada and Mexico; sim- ilar three-way meetings have been held with Canada and France. For the third year, the United States reported on narcotics in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS). An outgrowth of our presentations to the CCMS was the World Opium Survey 1972, a comprehensive re- port issued in August by the Cabinet Committee on International Narcotics Control and given widespread distribution at home and abroad. In South and Southeast Asia, members of the Colombo Plan inet in New Delhi in November and agreed to U.S. proposals to include drug abuse as a special agenda item at the 1973 meeting and to appoint a drug abuse adviser to the Colombo Plan Bureau for the promotion of regional interchange and cooperative efforts among member nations.

150