Note to Correspondents
UNIS/NAR/907
22 June 2005
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to Launch 2005 World Drug Report
Dynamics of World Drug Use, Addiction and Trafficking Analyzed
VIENNA, 22 June (UN Information Service) -- Millions of the world’s citizens use drugs. Approximately 40 million are hard-core users, consumers of heroin and cocaine. Roughly 100 million more use other substances less regularly, teetering, in some cases, on the edge of serious drug addiction, and “playing,” in other instances, with drugs like marijuana, “club drugs,” amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), and other substances they mistakenly believe pose no lasting danger.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has a critical mission: to pull hard drug users back from the brink, and to prevent occasional drug users, or consumers of drugs other than heroin and cocaine, from slipping into serious, full-time addiction. The dynamics of drug use, addiction, and the business of drug trafficking are the subject of the new 2005 World Drug Report. It offers a map of a dangerous and shifting landscape, as well as a picture of a future it is not yet too late to avoid.
The 2005 World Drug Report will answer these questions and more, providing the international community with the facts and figures it needs to strike back at a growing threat.
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UNODC and Annika Söder, State Secretary to the Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden will launch the 2005 World Drug Report in Stockholm, Sweden.
The media are invited to attend the launch on:
Wednesday, 29 June, 11:00 hours at the
Press Centre, Fredsgatan 6, Stockholm, Sweden
Simultaneous launches will occur on the same day in Brussels, Vienna, New York and at UNODC field offices.
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For more information, contact:
Kathleen Millar, Deputy Spokesperson, UNODC
+43 1 26060 5629
kathleen.millar@unodc.org
