Agenda Item 7(b): Intl. Narcotics Control Board

Agenda Item 7(b): International Narcotics Control Board

Christy McCampbell, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
U.S. Statement
Vienna, Austria
March 13, 2007

Thank you Mr. Chairman:

Each year the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) issues a report which provides the world's best scorecard on how our governments are doing collectively, as well as individually, in meeting the obligations we have assumed under the international drug control conventions. Also, and very importantly, the report alerts us to emerging threats in drug abuse and chemical diversion that we must confront. This year's report fully meets, and in many aspects, exceeds the excellence of those reports from past years.

Mr. Chairman, this year I would like to reverse the tables a bit and use my statement to present a picture on the performance of the Board as seen by my government. In one word, Mr. Chairman, I can say that we consider it to have been outstanding. Please allow me to explain.

Last year, this Commission adopted resolution 49/3. This is an important resolution that requests Member States to provide to the Board estimates of their legitimate requirements for key chemicals and preparations used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs. However, when we left Vienna last March we left the Board without any suggestions or guidance on how to accomplish the difficult task of collecting, compiling and disseminating this information. Nevertheless, the Board responded quickly and effectively, and the estimates it received have been made available in the annual precursors report. Already, the estimates have proven their value in assisting governments in regulating their commerce in these chemicals to prevent their diversion to synthetic drug manufacture.

It is essential that we, the Member States, match the Board's fine performance. We all must submit the estimates, we all must regularly update them, and we all must use them as a baseline tool to determine the legitimacy of proposed transactions in these substances.

The very success we have enjoyed thus far with the estimates makes broader participation imperative. The Board notes in its report this year that traffickers already are seeking out alternative countries in which to order and divert chemicals. Many of these countries, which rarely import these chemicals, can become the unwitting accomplices of the traffickers if they do not estimate their requirements and ensure their imports do not exceed them. Therefore, we urge full compliance with the resolution and participation in this system of estimates.

Drug traffickers are also reacting to our better success in controlling precursor chemicals by obtaining pharmaceutical preparations containing them. The chemicals used in synthetic drug manufacture can be easily recovered from many of these preparations. In some cases, it is as easy as grounding up the pills used in that form as a precursor to manufacture drugs. Therefore, we urge countries, as requested in the resolution, to determine their legitimate requirements for pharmaceutical preparations containing synthetic drug chemicals, and to provide this information to the Board. By doing so, you will be better able to regulate your own commerce and assist others as they control their commerce to prevent fraudulent sales and diversion.

A third area of concern is traffickers turning to substitute raw materials for drug manufacture, such as ephedra, or unregulated chemical derivatives of important regulated chemicals. In 1996, ECOSOC adopted resolution 1996/29 based on a resolution adopted by the 1996 Commission on Narcotic Drugs dealing with this issue. It calls for the establishment of a limited international special surveillance list of non-scheduled substances for which substantial information exists of their use in illicit drug trafficking. We need to cooperate together in using this list to alert each other to substances being used to circumvent the successes we are having in preventing diversion of controlled chemicals. The Member States are in the best position to identify these substitutes as they emerge and add them to the surveillance list to combat chemical diversion and drug manufacture. But this information must be shared widely and quickly. The special surveillance list we established in 1996 provides a vehicle for us to do that. I urge all Member States to contribute to it and to consult it regularly.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, in this year's report there is a modest reference to online Pre-Export Notification system that the Board officially launched in March 2006 to ensure the quick and efficient exchange of data. The reference to this system should not be so modest, it is a wonderful accomplishment, and we should first applaud it, and then use it. Pre-Export Notifications, or PENs, are crucial tools in effective chemical diversion control. This online system allows us to exchange PENs with ease. And we must do so. It is not sufficient only for the exporter to send a PEN, the importer must take note of it and respond, as appropriate. Two-way communication is required and now it is easy.

Finally we lend our support to the INCB's Annual Report with regard to drug injection and consumption rooms. Injection rooms violate both the language and spirit of the UN treaties and conventions on drugs.

Mr. Chairman, I'll conclude my scorecard report on the Board by repeating what I said at the outset, we give the Board an outstanding grade. Every year, and this year in particular with the estimates of legitimate requirements and the online PEN system, the Board gives us new tools with which to meet our obligations under the international drug control conventions. We, as member States, should be striving to meet the same standard of excellence the Board has established in our use of these tools.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

ENDS

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