SCO countries to ink anti-drug strategy for 2011-2016 in June

ASTANA, March 30 (Itar-Tass) - The heads of drug control agencies of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's member-countries on Wednesday
approved an anti-drug strategy for 2011-2016 and a plan for its
fulfillment, Kazakhstan's national coordinator for the SCO affairs,
Shakhrat Nuryshev, told reporters after the session.
He said, these documents "will be approved by the heads of state at
the Astana summit in June," which will "help form a general conception of
interaction."
According to the deputy director of the Russia's Federal Drug Control
Service, Oleg Safonov, the anti-drug strategy will lessen drugs smuggling
into the SCO countries. He said the SCO was mainly interested in solving
the problem of heroin trafficking from Afghanistan, where according to UN
statistics, the production of drugs has increased 44 times since 2001.
Afghan drug cartels' turnover totals about 65 billion dollars.
"This is a global challenge of the 21st century, and that is why the
efforts exerted by our countries will allow us to efficiently fight this
ill," Safonov said.