Cocaine use is increasing in most of Western Europe and South America. The consumption of amphetamine-type stimulants has increased throughout the 1990s in Europe, with some stabilization only at the very end of the decade. The pattern of increase is the same here in Asia when methamphetamine is considered. About half of all users of amphetamines worldwide are in Asia, mostly in East and South East Asia. In several countries of the region, methamphetamine abuse already exceeds that ofopiates.
Many challenges remain on the traffic side as well.
Drug traffickers continue to find new routes. We have a clear example of this in the recent seizure of 350 kilos of heroin in Fiji. Traffickers took advantage of the internal situation in that country to make it into a transit point to Australia. Just like legitimate businessmen, traffickers have modern communications technology at their disposal. And they have the resources to use this technology to improve their efficiency more quickly than we can.