The call came after reports claimed drug addiction, especially the abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), has become even more rampant in the region in recent years.

Senior officials from China, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Viet Nam, as well as the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), made the announcement when attending a sub-regional drug control meeting Monday in Beijing.

"Traditional drugs, such as opium, heroin, cocaine and marijuana, are still rampant in the region,'' said Bai Jingfu, vice-minister of public security, at the opening of the three-day meeting. "At the same time, new types of amphetamine narcotics, like ice and ecstasy, are spreading rapidly.''

The meeting stems from a 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Drug Control (MOU) by China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and the UNDCP; while Cambodia and Vietnam became signatory countries in 1995.

Ever-increasing drug abuse is integrated with money laundering and organized crimes, threatening human beings and the whole society, Bai said.

The worsening trend towards ATS is both a global and regional phenomenon that challenges conventional policies and programmes for drug demand reduction in countries of Southeast Asia, said a UNDCP report.

To tackle the problem, all parties involved in the region have boosted communications, understanding and cooperation under the MOU mechanism, noted Bai.

Thanks to the implementation of scores of UNDCP projects during the past few years, the countries involved have improved their capacity in drug-control, including law enforcement, demand reduction and alternative development, said the vice-minister.

The Chinese Government focused on improving cooperation under the MOU mechanism, and performed its duty honestly and played its part in this regard, he added.

Such measures are also essential due to the fact, as a neighbor to some of the world's most notorious drug production centers, China has become not only a transit country but a market, as more people become addicted to drugs.

Different from opium production, which is poverty based, amphetamine production is motivated more by greed, making it harder to control, said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, a UNDCP representative in Myanmar.

"What we need is a mix of law enforcement and demand reduction,'' Lemahieu said. "Beyond that, we need cross-border cooperation.''

During the meeting, MOU member countries reported their drug-control measures and achievements, and discussed future cooperation under the mechanism.

Some 50 delegates from the six countries and UNDCP, and about 30 observers from UN organizations in China, foreign drug-control liaison offices, fund-donating countries and the National Narcotics Control Commission attended the meeting.

(China Daily May 21, 2002)