23/04/2013 Political Affairs and Democracy
Strasbourg, 23.04.2013 – According to the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, meeting in Strasbourg today during the plenary session, the need for European countries to mobilise efforts to curb the production of opium and heroin in Afghanistan, and dismantle networks of drug trafficking from this country is becoming urgent.
The report prepared by Lord Tomlinson (United Kingdom, SOC), adopted today by the committee, says that Afghanistan is the leading opium producer in the world, accounting for 88% of global production between 2005 and 2010, according to figures published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The rapporteur adds that most opium is now processed in Afghanistan, where the number of clandestine laboratories is estimated between 300 and 500, and where the annual heroin production reaches 380 to 400 tonnes. While 90% of the world’s opium comes from Afghanistan, less than 2% is seized there.
At the same time, European countries are the leading consumers of heroin, and approximately 5,700 deaths a year are due to opioid use in the EU plus Croatia, Norway and Turkey. In Russia alone, over 6,300 deaths were attributed to opioid abuse in 2010.
The committee therefore considers it vital to mobilise the political support of member States with a view to more efficient international co-operation, particularly to combat poppy cultivation and production of heroin and other opiates in Afghanistan and to dismantle the network of traffic of opiates from Afghanistan to Europe, as well as the distribution chains in Europe.