INQUIRER Global Nation

MANILA, Philippines?The use of synthetic drugs is on the rise in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Thursday.

UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa told the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), which kicked off its 53rd session in Vienna Tuesday, that heroin use is on the rise in East Africa, and cocaine use in West Africa.

He stressed the need to bolster human rights in the fight against drugs, pointing out that millions of people?including children?are sent to jail, not to treatment facilities, when caught taking drugs.

?In some countries, drug treatment amounts to cruel, degrading punishment?the equivalent of torture,? Costa said, adding that some are even sentenced to death for drug-related offenses.

?As human beings, as well as members of the community of civilized nations, we have a shared responsibility to put an end to this,? he said. ?People who use drugs, or are behind bars, have not lost their humanity or their human rights.?

The CND is the UN?s central policy-making body in drug-related matters, allowing member states to analyze the global drug situation and monitor the implementation of the three global drug control pacts, including the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

In a news release from the UN office in Manila, the executive director also noted the growing security threat posed by drugs, particularly in the vulnerable regions of the Balkans, Central and West Asia, and East and West Africa.

He warned that the global situation on illegal drugs could cause a ?health disaster? in the developing world, which lacks the necessary treatment facilities and law enforcement capacities to rein in narcotics.

?This seems to have been forgotten by people in rich countries calling for a loosening of drug controls,? said Costa.

Health is paramount in drug control, the UNODC chief said. While drug addition is a treatable condition, inequality within and among nations marginalizes the poor who cannot access treatment.

?While rich addicts go to posh clinics, poor addicts are being pushed into the gutters or to jail,? he emphasized.

His agency is working with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to achieve the goal of universal access to drug treatment and with the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to halt the spread of the disease through injection drug use.

This session of the CND will wrap up on Friday.