Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 March /corr. Trend K.Ramazanova / Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia became one of the routes of contraband of the drugs from Afghanistan to Europe.
"The southern Caucasus is increasingly being used as a transit area for consignments of opiates from
Afghanistan and, as a result, drug abuse is on the rise in that sub region. In view of their long borders with
Iran (Islamic Republic of), the Russian Federation and Turkey and their access to the Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea, the Board remains concerned that the situation with regard to drug trafficking and abuse in
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will deteriorate further unless increased attention is given to
information-sharing, more efficient border control and regional and national coordination of drug control activities," the UN-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said in its annual report for 2007, released in Vienna on 4 March.
Afghanistan produced an extraordinary 8,200 tons of opium in 2007 (34 per cent more than in 2006), supplying 93 per cent of the global market for opiates.
"Afghan opiates are smuggled predominantly through Iran (Islamic Republic) and Pakistan and
Countries in Central Asia. Those countries are faced with a wide range of problems related to large-scale drug trafficking, such as organized crime, corruption and relatively high illicit demand for opiates. The Islamic Republic of Iran has the highest rate of abuse of opiates in the world," the report says.
According to data by the UNO, increasing drug addiction and a shift from cannabis and opium abuse to heroin abuse are common to all countries in Central Asia. The number of officially registered cases of HIV/AIDS in Central Asia increased by 30 per cent.
The Board urges the Government of Afghanistan to take more measures to prevent illegal turnover of the drugs in the Country.