VIENNA, Austria (AP) – Drug trafficking threatens to undermine stability in Afghanistan and hinder development in Iraq as the two countries attempt to emerge from conflict and forge functioning democracies, a key U.N. drug control body warned in a report released Wednesday.

The International Narcotics Control Board said drug production in Afghanistan was so widespread it “has become a severe threat to this new democracy, as well as the stability and economic recovery of the country as a whole.”

Drug production in Afghanistan reached a record level in 2004, defying efforts to curb production.

“We are expecting that the international community help Afghanistan … so that the issue can be corrected before it’s too late and Afghanistan becomes a narcotic state,” Hamid Ghodse, president of the Vienna-based board, told reporters Tuesday. “Once it becomes a narcotic state, the rule of the law, the democracy, everything, will go out of the window.”

The board, an independent body that monitors the implementation of U.N. drug conventions and monitors the global supply of legal drugs, also is concerned about Iraq, where traffickers could flourish in the power vacuum that exists in the post-conflict environment, Ghodse said.

“The complex interlinkage of terrorism, organized crime, corruption and drug trafficking poses an unprecedented threat, raising concerns that the overall situation may worsen,” said the report.

Ghodse said the board hoped that Iraqi leaders would put drug issues at the top of the agenda “before it’s too late.”

The report also called for international cooperation to battle Internet pharmacies, which it said are “not only operating in contravention of international and national legislation, but also subjecting customers to serious health risks.”

Ghodse said such Internet pharmacies were “really taking the place of traditional drug traffickers.” Most sell drugs without the required prescriptions, and they may also be selling to children, he added.

“The consumer is getting the low-quality drug, not knowing what it is in it,” Ghodse said. “They are breaking the law themselves, without knowing.”

Because the pharmacies’ offers range from harmless vitamins and food supplements to potent drugs that could be dangerous or lead to addiction, they also risk blurring the perceived border between harmless and harmful drugs, said Rainer Wolfgang Schmid, a board member.

The first of the annual report’s three chapters urges countries to coordinate their efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs with the battle to reduce demand, or abuse. Focusing just on the supply side, as often done, cannot “have a long-term effect because new sources soon emerge to meet continuing demand,” the report said.

“It is therefore essential to develop comprehensive strategies, combining action to reduce both supply and demand. Then and only then will there be significant progress in dealing with drug abuse problems,” said the report, which intends to inform governments of situations that could endanger the goals of drug control treaties.

AP-ES-03-01-05 1342EST

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