Pubdate: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: 2006sThe Australian Contact: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus-letters.htm Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35 Author: Cameron Stewart Note: Cameron Stewart is an associate editor of The Australian. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) DYING FOR A FIX Rising Affluence In The Asia-Pacific Region Has Led To A Growing Population Of Young Middle-Class Drug Users Fed By Booming Illicit Domestic Markets, Writes Cameron Stewart WHEN the North Korean ship the Pong Su mysteriously appeared off the Victorian coast in 2003 to dump its deadly haul of heroin here, authorities hoped it was a one-off crime, a brazen act by a desperate nation. That now seems unlikely. A significant new report, obtained exclusively by The Australian, shows Australia is almost certain to be targeted by other heroin ships. What's more, it reveals there is a ghostly armada of Pong Sus out there today, plying the waters of Asia and the Pacific carrying drugs to unsuspecting victims around the world. In one of the most chilling studies of its kind, the Australian National Council on Drugs, the principal advisory body to the federal Government on drug policy, has taken a rare and comprehensive snapshot of the Asia-Pacific region. Its 215-page report finds that, despite record numbers of drug-related arrests, the region is awash with illicit drugs, from heroin to amphetamines to schoolyard glue. These drugs are being aggressively sought by a new generation of Asians, the rising affluent middle-class youth, and are being peddled by the dirt poor who are increasingly left behind by economic development. Meanwhile, the region's drug barons have pioneered brazen new routes to deliver their deadly cargo to victims. Gino Vumbaca, ANCD's executive officer, says the report debunks the commonly held notion in Australia that Asia is only a supplier of drugs, rather than a heavy user. "The number of illicit drug users throughout the Asian region has increased dramatically over the past decade," he says. "There is now a very strong domestic market for illicit drug use in Asian countries." The ANCD report says "the amount of illicit drugs now produced in Asia, especially heroin and amphetamine-type substances, is measurable in many tonnes a year. "The numbers of people using and dependent on illicit drugs run into the millions across the region. Issues of such magnitude challenge the capacity of developed nations, let alone those that are attempting to hasten social and economic development, often from a low base," says the report, Situational Analysis of Illicit Drug Issues in the Asia-Pacific Region. While the report says it is difficult to be definitive about the number of drug users, it concludes that China has up to 12 million, while four other Asian nations - Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and The Philippines - have more than two million between them. The report does not spell out the implications for Australia, but they are obvious and grim. A flourishing demand for drugs on Australia's doorstep can lead only to greater production and greater trafficking of illicit drugs, making it harder to prevent those drugs landing here. The growing threat posed by drugs in the region is one of the reasons why the Australian Federal Police in August won cabinet approval to double its international police force to about 1000 officers. "We should not underestimate the threat that illicit drug use and supply poses to the wider Asia-Pacific region's stability and the potential impact of this situation on Australia," says Vumbaca. The ANCD report slays several myths about drug use in Asia, most notably the assumption that drug users are mostly poor and desperate. While many drug users are impoverished, the fastest-growing group are the affluent sons and daughters of those who are riding Asia's economic boom. "Amphetamines are making substantial inroads into rapidly growing and economically powerful youth cultures in many countries," the report says. "This is especially the case among the children of political leadership in some countries ... many young illicit drug users are still living in a family environment." Robert Ali of the University of Adelaide says middle-class communities in Asia are clearly "struggling with the uptake of drug use among their youth. This is particularly the case with amphetamine-type stimulants and other designer drugs." This new generation of dance-party clubbers is using ecstasy and other Western fad drugs not traditionally seen in the region. Australian model Michelle Leslie spent three months in a Bali prison last year after being found with ecstasy in her handbag outside a dance party. According to Leslie's defence team, Siti Namira, the daughter of a prominent Indonesian, was the source of the two pills, part of a much larger stash allegedly belonging to an Indonesian judge's son. More frightening is that China can produce an ecstasy tablet more cheaply than it can make a packet of chewing gum. Ecstasy tablets in China can be produced for as little as US6c (8c) a tablet, the report says. The ANCD says China has emerged as the drug giant of Asia, a seething, uncontrolled hotbed of drug production and trafficking. "In recent years the trafficking of drugs through China has increased substantially ... most of the heroin produced in Burma (an estimated 63-73 tonnes a year) is now trafficked through China, which has become an important shipment route for the international market." New drug routes have also opened from Afghanistan into western China, turning the old Silk Road in a drug superhighway. But, as always, the drug mules who make this trade work are the most impoverished. "Increasingly, drug traffickers are found to be women, children and poor, uneducated farmers who carry the drugs inside their bodies from the Golden Triangle and then on to various districts of China," the report says. "Women couriers often swallow 400-500g of drugs encased in rubber, then fly from Kunming to other parts of China under the pretext of searching for employment." From Australia's perspective, one of the most alarming aspects of the study is the rise of Indonesia as a drug haven. "Following the end of the Suharto era there has been considerable growth in the drug trade," the report says. "Indonesia was previously a transit rather than a destination country for illicit drugs, but this has recently changed so that Indonesia is now a point of transit, a destination and a source of drugs." With a wild and often remote coastline of more than 8500km, Indonesia's porous borders are a haven for drug smugglers, especially those wanting their product to end up in Australia. "Cocaine from the Andes travels via Brazil onwards to Hong Kong, then to Denpasar and often to Australia," the report says. Another alarming finding is that the Pacific Islands are increasingly being used as transit points by drug smugglers. "The geographic position of countries in the Pacific region facilitates the drug trade, both eastbound and westbound. South American cocaine is transported into Southeast Asia and Australia, while Southeast Asian heroin and methamphetamine are transported by couriers into Canada and into the US." The report attributes much of the problem to the uneven nature of economic growth in the region, which has created stark divisions between rich and poor. It says the poor, especially those living in inner-city slums, have been locked out of the new economies of Asia. "This is fertile ground ... trafficking and dealing are ways of accessing the informal economy when access to the formal economy is barred, as well as using drugs to ease the experience of impoverishment." Ethnic minorities on border regions of China, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam and Papua are among the poorest in Asia and are particularly at risk. "The Asian region has been undergoing massive change over the past few decades: socially, economically and often politically. "There has been a continuous influx of individuals - often men as labourers and women as sex workers - and families from rural areas to the cities. Such changes often lead to increased inequitable access to new wealth and substantial strains on urban services." The report places some of the blame for Asia's drug problem on the ham-fisted efforts of regional governments to deal with it. Rather than embrace modern solutions to wean people off drugs, the report says Asian nations have relied on heavy-handed solutions. "Much reliance is still placed on approaches for which there is little evidence of effectiveness, such as traditional medicines and boot camp-style rehabilitation centres or even imprisonment. Psychological and behavioural counselling is rare (and) recidivism rates are high: quoted as 80 per cent, but very likely much higher." The growing prevalence of drug use and drug trafficking in Asia gives a lie to those who say the death penalty and harsh jail sentences are an active deterrent to the trade. Almost all Asian countries, with the exception of Cambodia and East Timor, have the death penalty for possessing and trafficking drugs. In China, the official response is especially brutal, with offenders often summarily executed with a gunshot to the back of the head. Indonesia and Vietnam use a firing squad, The Philippines uses lethal injection, while Singapore and Malaysia employ the hangman. Australian Nguyen Tuong Van was executed last December for drug trafficking, while members of the Bali Nine have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment for their part in trafficking commercial quantities of heroin. Similarly, harsh jail terms, such as the 20-year sentence given to Australian Schapelle Corby for importing cannabis, have failed to stem or even slow the drug trade. The aim of the ANCD study is to help identify ways in which Australia can assist Asia to tackle its drug problems, especially by promoting the prevention and reduction of drug use and the treatment for those with drug problems. As this report shows, the challenges are huge and the problem is only getting bigger. Australia can hardly solve the problem of drugs in Asia, but it can help at the margins through well-targeted development assistance and through closer regional co-operation with police and customs to crack down on trafficking. That is the best way, the only way, to prevent another Pong Su washing up on Australian shores. [Sidebar] A Region's Shame CAMBODIA Population: 13.4 million Estimated drug users: 520,000 Main drugs: Yama (amphetamine) Drugs injected: Heroin, methamphetamine CHINA Population: 1.3 billion Estimated drug users: 1.05 million registered, 6-12 million in total. Injecting drug users, 356,000-3.5 million Main drugs: Heroin, benzodiazepines, methamphetamines, ecstasy, cannabis, opium, ketamine Drugs injected: Heroin, methamphetamine, diazepam, pethidine, morphine HONG KONG Population: 6.9 million Estimated drug users: 36,384 (2001) Main drugs: Heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamine, ketamine, cocaine, cannabis, cough mixtures, solvents Drugs injected: Heroin INDONESIA Population: 238 million Estimated drug users: 1.3-6 million, including 124,000-196,000 IDUs Main drugs: Cannabis, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, depressants, solvents, codeine, cocaine Drugs injected: Heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine LAOS Population: 6.1 million Estimated drug users: 50,000-70,000 Main drugs: Opium, amphetamine-type substances, cannabis, prescription drugs Drugs injected: Heroin, opium, ATS. MACAU Population: 425,286 Estimated drug users: 3700, 500-900 IDUs Main drugs: Heroin, cannabis, ice, methamphetamine, ketamine, cocaine, ATS mainly ecstasy, MDMA, sedatives Drugs injected: Heroin MALAYSIA Population: 23.5 million Estimated drug users: 350,000-500,000, including 150,000-240,000 IDUs Main drugs: Heroin, ATS, cannabis, ketamine Drugs injected: Heroin, methamphetamine BURMA Population: 42.7 million Estimated drug users: 300,000-400,000 Main drugs: Heroin, opium, cannabis, methamphetamines, tranquillisers Drugs injected: Heroin PHILIPPINES Population: 84 million Estimated drug users: 1.8 million (1998) Main drugs: Methamphetamines, cannabis Drugs injected: Very limited THAILAND Population: 65 million Estimated drug users: 2-3 million, 50,000-100,000 IDUs Main drugs: ATS, cannabis, kratom, inhalants, opium, heroin Drugs injected: Heroin, ATS VIETNAM Population: 83 million Estimated drug users: 170,400 registered (2004), unofficially 200,000-500,000 Main drugs: Heroin, opium, methamphetamine, ecstasy, cannabis, blackwater opium, diazepam, glue Drugs injected: Heroin, opium, diazepam Source: Australian National Council On Drugs - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman