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UNIS VIENNA / INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD ANNUAL REPORT
STORY: UNIS VIENNA / INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD ANNUAL REPORT
TRT: 08:37
SOURCE: UNIS VIENNA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 05 MARCH 2024, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
1. Wide shot, exterior, Vienna International Centre (VIC)
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“Trafficking networks have been using Internet and social media lately to reach people who use drugs, but also to reach the entire community, to also advertise for drugs and to make sure they're not detected and to evade that detection by using very specific platforms.”
3. Wide shot, INCB journalists at the press briefing to launch the report
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
"As much as Internet and social media can harm in promoting, selling and trafficking for drugs, it could also help a lot the international community by promoting access to information, to appropriate information about drugs, and also to raising awareness, to promoting access, also to good prevention, to science-based prevention.”
5. Wide shot, INCB President and journalists at the press briefing to launch the report
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“Also, it's important to promote access and to facilitate access to e-health and telemedicine by making it easy to access preventive programmes and treatment programmes.”
7. Wide shot, INCB President and INCB staff walking towards the camera along a corridor
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“We see that in developed countries we have very good access to opioids, for example for pain management.”
9. Med shot, INCB President at the press briefing to launch the report
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“Those drugs need to be accessible, affordable, and available for every single person on earth, be it in peaceful places and or mainly in war zones and conflict zones.”
11. Med shot, INCB President at the press briefing to launch the report
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“It is important that people have access to those drugs because they are important for health. The second thing is, it is also important to bridge that gap between developed countries and developing countries. In developed countries, there was sometimes an excess in prescribing and accessing those drugs.”
13. Wide shot, President and UNIS Vienna Director at the press briefing to launch the report
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“In developing countries, we have a lack and huge gap in accessing those drugs that are very important in terms of pain management and care management and pain care management. So, it's a human right thing, that's crucial.”
15. Wide shot, President and UNIS Vienna Director at the press briefing to launch the report
16. SOUNDBITE (French) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“The biggest challenges we face today in the use of the Internet and social media is their use to traffic, sell, and promote of drugs and, unfortunately, to divert control. We are seeing more and more platforms today that promote access to drugs, the sale of drugs and the promotion of drugs. This is one of the major challenges, the major challenge is how the international community can stop, or at least reduce, the use of Internet and social media platforms to promote drugs, the sale of drugs and drug trafficking.
17. Close up, INCB Annual Reports and Precursors Reports
18. SOUNDBITE (French) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“Despite the fact that the Internet and social media pose a serious problem in terms of drug trafficking and promotion, and the sale of drugs, they can, on the contrary, be used to promote access to information, particularly among young people who make extensive use of social media and exchange platforms. So, access to information about drugs, and correct information based on scientific elements, but also use in prevention and also use in training for the general population, and use of social media platforms and the Internet to promote telehealth, telemedicine, of course, in access to care and in access to care management via the Internet and social media.”
19. Close up, INCB Annual Reports and Precursors Reports
20. SOUNDBITE (French) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“This is an extremely important issue, because there is now a huge difference between countries where there is an excess of availability, and therefore of accessibility, and countries where there is unfortunately a decrease in this accessibility and availability, but also in its affordability, which is very important to me. Developed countries where there are epidemics of opioid misuse, unfortunately resulting in thousands of deaths, and developing countries where pain management unfortunately lacks access to these drugs, which I believe are a very important human right. For me, the most important aspect of this issue is information on access. When we see, for example, that morphine, which is a very inexpensive drug, is not available at all in developing countries, even though it could have been used to good effect for pain management.”
21. Med shot, INCB President at the press briefing to launch the report
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“One of the most important challenges that now exist in the world regarding the use of social media networks and the Internet is drug trafficking, drug sales, and drug marketing using social media and the Internet.”
23. Med shot, journalists at the press briefing to launch the report
24. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“This is a challenge for the international community to find solutions to control these networks (international drug trafficking networks that use the Internet) and also use social networks to promote and sell drugs. Just as the Internet and social networks can be dangerous for the promotion and trafficking of drugs, they can also be, at the same time and in the opposite direction, very important and appropriate opportunities for the promotion of correct and scientifically based news regarding drugs and also for protection and access to treatment through social media technologies and through what is called e-health or online health, these social media are very important to communicate correct information and also facilitate access to prevention and treatment for drug users.”
25. Various shots, INCB President and journalists at the press briefing to launch the report
26. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jallal Toufiq, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
“The issue of access to illicit drugs globally is a complex one, and there is a big difference between developed and developing countries. For developed countries, there is an overuse of illicit drugs, especially opioids, and there are, as you can see, large and neglected numbers of deaths by poisoning. At the same time, for developing countries, there is a great lack of access to these drugs (opioids) for the treatment of pain, which is very important and is a legitimate human right. It is also very important to have access to prohibited drugs in crisis zones and war zones, as it is the right of any person to have access to these substances for use even in these areas (crisis zones and war zones).”
27. Various shots, INCB President and journalists at the press briefing to launch the report
According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the evolving landscape of online drug trafficking is presenting new challenges to drug control.
The INCB Annual Report, launched today (05 Mar) highlights the role of the Internet in drug trafficking and drug use.
There are also opportunities to use the Internet for drug use prevention and treatment to safeguard people’s health and welfare, the Board said.
The increased availability of illicit drugs on the Internet, the exploitation by criminal groups of online platforms including social media, and the increased risk of overdose deaths due to the online presence of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are some of the key challenges for drug control in the Internet era.
“We can see that drug trafficking is not just carried out on the dark web. Legitimate e-commerce platforms are being exploited by criminals too. We encourage governments to work with the private sector and INCB projects to prevent and detect trafficking of drugs and other dangerous substances online,” said Jallal Toufiq, the President of INCB.
Using social media and other online platforms means drug traffickers can advertise their products to large global audiences.
Various conventional social media platforms are being used as local marketplaces and inappropriate content is widely accessible to children and adolescents.
Encryption methods, anonymous browsing on the darknet and cryptocurrencies are commonly used to avoid detection, posing difficulties for prosecuting online trafficking offences.
Offenders can move their activities to territories with less intensive law enforcement action or lighter sanctions or base themselves in countries where they can evade extradition.
The sheer scale of online activity is an added complication. In one case in France, law enforcement authorities collected more than 120 million text messages from 60,000 mobile phones.
Patient safety is at risk from illicit Internet pharmacies which sell drugs without a prescription directly to consumers. It is impossible for consumers to know whether the drugs are counterfeit, unapproved or even illegal. The global trade in illicit pharmaceuticals is estimated to be worth 4.4 billion USD.
The Board sees opportunities to use online platforms to prevent non-medical use of drugs, raise awareness about the harms of drug use and support public health campaigns.
Governments can use social media platforms to conduct drug use prevention campaigns to prevent substance misuse among young people in particular.
“There are opportunities to use social media and the Internet to prevent drug use, raise awareness of its harms and improve access to drug treatment services,” said INCB President Toufiq, “At the same time we are concerned about the increasing use of social media to market drugs including to children and the ways that criminals are exploiting online platforms for illicit activities.”
Telemedicine and Internet pharmacies could improve access to healthcare and help reach patients with drug use disorders and deliver drug treatment services to more people.
Online platforms could also be used for sharing information about adverse consequences of drug use and communicating warnings of adulterated drugs which could save lives.
The global nature of online platforms makes collaborative efforts vitally important for identifying new threats and developing effective responses.
INCB is encouraging voluntary cooperation between governments and online industries to tackle the misuse of legitimate e-commerce platforms for drug trafficking.
Its initiatives such as the GRIDS programme have led to drug seizures and arrests as well as criminal networks being dismantled.
The manufacturing, marketing, movement, and monetization industries are particularly vulnerable to being exploited by those trafficking in dangerous substances.
The Board says that increased cooperation is needed between governments, international organizations, regulatory authorities, and the private sector to meet these evolving challenges.
In many parts of the world there is not enough affordable morphine available to meet medical needs.
These persistent regional disparities in opioid analgesics used for pain treatment are not due to a shortage of opiate raw materials but rather in part due to inaccurate estimates of the actual medical needs of their populations.
Levels of consumption of pain relief medicine remain highest in Europe and North America.
There was an acute need for medicines containing internationally controlled substances in 2023 for people caught up in natural disasters and emergencies related to climate change and conflict.
INCB urges governments to use simplified control procedures in such situations to ensure unimpeded availability of these medicines.
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