26 Jun 2012

UN / DRUGS AND CRIME REPORT WRAP

Highlighting the impact of drug abuse around the world, the head of the UN anti-drugs office today said that countering transnational organized crime and illicit drugs must become an integral part of the development agenda. UNTV / FILE

Posted at: June 26, 2012 5:56 pm

Duration: 03:24

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: GA/ DRUGS AND CRIME REPORT
TRT: 3.24
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 26 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

FILE, 2011 UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters

26 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, podium
3. Wide shot, meeting
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon. Secretary-General, United Nations:
"Every dollar lost to corruption is a dollar denied to communities for health care, to families for food security, to children for education. And, of course, illicit drugs and crime fuel violence."
5. Cutaway, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
"Criminal networks have evolved into multinational, multiregional enterprises that generate billions of dollars. UNODC estimates that the total of all criminal proceeds are likely to amount to some 3.6 percent of the global GDP or 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars."
7. Cutaway, audience
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
"Afghanistan remains the is the biggest producer of opiates in the world , on average it produces around 90 percent of the worlds opiate every year."
9. Cutaway, audience listening
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Otaviano Canuto, Vice-President, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, World Bank:
"Reports for some countries in Central America produced by the World Bank in 2011 suggest that at the national level, including citizen security, law enforcement and health care expenses, the cost of crime and violence are close to 8 percent of these countries gross domestic product on average. The investment climate is polluted and national institutions key to ensuring long term development are weakened. The drug business is particularly insidious it is by far the most profitable illicit global trade says UNODC, amounting to some 320 billion dollars annually."
11. Wide shot, press conference
12. Cutaway, journalists
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Peachman, research officer, UNODC:
"We also have information that actually less cocaine is entering from Mexico into the United States. As a result we have seen a significant decline of cocaine use in the United States. Cocaine use has declined from 2.5 percent to 1.8 percent of the population 12 and above between 2006 and 2010. When we take the numbers of the the drug testing cases between 2006 and 2011 there was a decline of 63 percent  less positive cases of cocaine use in the United States."
16. Cutaway, journalists
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
I haven't seen any specific executive order, decision or act of parliament that would really enact this decision (by Uruguay to legalize the use of marijuana) into practice. Should it happen of course it would be a serious violation of the single convention and Uruguay is a party to this convention."

FILE – 2005, KENYA

18. Various shots, intercepted drugs being burned

FILE – UNMIL – 8 OCTOBER 2008 , LIBERIA

19. Close up, bag of marijuana 
20. Med shot, police man standing next to bag of marijuana 
21. Close up, two parcels of marijuana

FILE – UNODC, AFGHANISTAN

22. Wide shot, poppy destruction
23. Various shots, farmers scrapping poppy capsules

STORYLINE:

The Executive Director of the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime Yury Fedetov told delegates at a special debate today in the General Assembly that countering transnational organized crime and illicit drugs was vital for development.

He said that criminal networks have evolved into multinational, multiregional enterprises that generate billions of dollars. UNODC estimates that the total of all criminal proceeds are likely to amount to some 3.6 percent of the global GDP or 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars.
  
Launching the agency's annual report, he said that organized crime and illicit drugs could impact the achievement of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

There are a total of eight MDGs, ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, all by the target date of 2015. They form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and leading development institutions and have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest.

The 2012 World Drug Report finds that although global patterns of illicit drug use, production and health consequences largely remained stable in 2012, opium production had rebounded to previous high levels in 
Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer.

In addition, lower overall levels of cultivation and production of opium and coca have been offset by rising levels of synthetic drug production.

The UNODC chief said that drug-producing and drug-consuming countries alike have a stake in fighting the illicit drug trade, adding that Governments should not forget that illicit drugs also affect health and security globally.

Fedetov said that drugs appear to be spilling over into countries lying on trafficking routes like West and Central Africa, already witnessing rising numbers of cocaine users.

Afghanistan and Iran are grappling with the highest rates of opium and heroin use in the world.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this could threaten one of the world's most important goals -- sustainable development -- and that corruption drains as much as $40 billion dollars from developing countries.

The report says that as developing countries emulate the lifestyles of industrialized nations, drug consumption will most likely increase, placing a heavier burden on countries ill equipped to deal with it and international support should strengthen the capacity of vulnerable nations to confront that challenge.

Around 230 million people, or five per cent of the world's adult population, aged 15 to 64, are estimated to have used an illicit drug at least once in 2010, according to the Report. Problem drug users, mainly heroin- and cocaine-dependent persons, number about 27 million, roughly 0.6 per cent of the world adult population, or 1 in every 200 people.

The Assembly's debate coincides with the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed on 26 June.