Drug control experts are warning that conventional mail systems are inadvertently becoming key drug smuggling networks. Hamid Ghodse, the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, launched the board’s 2005 report this week and said, “It is estimated that 10 million packages containing illegal drugs passes through the United States’ international mail system each year.” He added, “That is not counting domestic traffic.”
Professor Ghodse said that the use of methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant drug with limited therapeutic use, “is a pandemic now” and identified online society as a root cause: “The internet is why illicit use of prescription drugs is increasing.”
Professor Ghodse pointed to a recent seizure of half a million tablets of the tranquilliser diazepam in Thailand as proof. The board estimates the value of pharmaceutical drugs smuggled through international postal systems at hundreds of millions of US dollars. “Much of this comes from counterfeiters of pharmaceutical products operating illegal internet sales sites,” Professor Ghodse said. “But some are obtained from legitimate sources using theft or false trade authorisations or individual prescriptions.” Internet pharmacies operating illegally are acting as supplier and dealer, selling through transient websites and delivering via the postal system.
But Professor Ghodse refused to comment on whether the high price of prescription drugs was partially responsible for the influx of illegal pharmacies. “We do not get into issues of pricing,” he said.
The board recommended that individual governments strengthen national legislation against postal drug smuggling and reduce the entry points for international parcels to enable effective screening of both incoming and outgoing mail. The screening process should also include international mail courier companies, professor Ghodse added.
The report also says that cocaine use is increasing in Europe with a 2% rise recorded in Spain and the United Kingdom, but heroin use is mainly dominated by Russia, with large seizures in 2004.
Most of the world’s supplies of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy, originate from Europe, says the report. The board estimates that up to two million tablets are consumed each week in the UK.
Professor Ghodse also said that projects aimed at reducing illegal drug crops by offering viable alternative crops for farmers are not having the desired impact and must be reinvented to be successful. “Experience has shown that this somewhat narrow and mechanical approach has not been very effective,” he said. “There have been some successes in Laos, Thailand, Peru, and Columbia but there is by no means a quick fix solution. We need to look at the users of these illicit drugs too. They will just transfer to other drugs if the supply of one is lost.”
Professor Ghodse indicated the board’s intention to reposition its “alternative development” approach to a broader and more sustained effort that incorporates governments and users, not just growers.
The International Narcotics Control Board is an independent organisation established in 1968 to monitor international drug control conventions, such as those within the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
