Assembly calls for intensified cooperation among states to combat drug abuse.

• Position: General Assembly responses to recommendations from its Third Committee - Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural

The General Assembly on 21 December acted on issues of drug control, social development and crime prevention, on the recommendation of its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

Under a seven-part resolution (50/148) on international action to combat drug abuse and illicit production and trafficking, the Assembly called upon States to intensify actions to promote effective cooperation in efforts to combat drug abuse and illicit trafficking, and urged them to ratify or accede to and implement the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. States were also called upon to adopt adequate national laws and regulations to strengthen national judicial systems and to carry out effective drug control activities, in cooperation with other States in accordance with those international instruments.

It was acknowledged that there were links between the illicit production of, demand for and traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and the economic and social conditions in the affected countries. The international community was called upon to provide increased economic and technical support to Governments that requested it for programmes of alternative and sustainable development "that have as their objectives the reduction and elimination of illicit drug production and take fully into account the cultural traditions of peoples".

States were called upon to increase efforts to reduce and eliminate illegal crops from which narcotics were obtained, as well as to prevent and reduce the demand for and the consumption of illicit drugs, and to implement the mandates and recommendations of the 1994 Global Programme of Action, with a view to translating it into practical action for drug abuse control at the national, regional and international levels.

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs was asked to discuss fully at its thirty-ninth session the proposal to hold a second international conference on drug abuse and illicit trafficking to review progress made by Governments and the UN system in combating drug abuse and illicit trafficking, and to present its conclusions and suggestions to the Assembly's 1996 session. Governments were urged to provide the fullest possible financial and political support to the UN International Drug Control Programme.

1999: International...