Narcotics Control Group Criticises Celebrity Endorsement Of Drugs

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Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 05 Mar 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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A report by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) criticised the celebrity endorsement of lifestyles based on drugs because it undermines efforts to deter drug use by impressionable young people who are vulnerable to the cult of celebrity.

The INCB Annual Report, 2007, was issued today, Wednesday 5th March, from the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Philip Emafo, president of the INCB said that dealing too leniently with famous drug users glamorised the abuse of narcotics, reported the BBC. He told the press that:

"If, indeed, they have committed offences they should be dealt with."

When celebrities use drugs, they too are breaking the law, said the report, and if they are dealt with leniently it sends the wrong message to young people who are quick to notice.

The INCB also called on governments to apply the law in equal measure when prosecuting drug offenders, saying that too much effort was spent on tackling low level offenders and not enough was being done to break up organised drug trafficking and bring the people who control it to justice.

The Report also said there are large discrepancies among countries in the way drug offenders and drug-related offences are treated, with the same offence dealt with severely in one country and leniently in another.

The INCB said that international drug trafficking operations were becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex, citing the case of Afghanistan and Columbia. For example, Afghanistan supplies over 90 per cent of the world's opium.

Stopping the smuggling of acetic anhydride into Afghanistan would be an effective way to reduce the country's opium production, which relies on the chemical, said the report. It would be in the best interest of Afghanistan's neighbours to do this because they are being increasingly affected by the trafficking of opium. For example Iran, which neighbours Afghanistan, has the highest rate of opiate abusers in the world.

The INCB called on governments around the world to take: "determined, secure, trusting and well coordinated action between…law enforcement agencies - particularly the sharing of intelligence and evidence with countries that can take effective confiscation action."

The Board urged all countries to give high priority to bringing in laws that allow assets of drug traffickers to be seized, and to widen the availability of drug treatment and rehabilitation to offenders in prison. It also urged governments to consider making treatment and rehabilitation mandatory for convicted drug offenders at high risk of relapse, for instance as an alternative to prison, where appropriate.

Click here for INCB.

Source: INCB, BBC News.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
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