Marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday called for boosting aid and tightening the rule of law to halt the cultivation, production and trafficking of illicit drugs.

This year is the centenary of drug control, with the Opium Commission having met in Shanghai, China, 100 years ago to bring an end to an opium epidemic. Ban said that in more recent years, United Nations conventions have played a role in tackling the challenge of drug abuse and curbing its "terrible toll" on people worldwide.

"Drug abuse can be prevented, treated and controlled," he said in a message for the International Day, appealing to member states to incorporate drug treatment into their public health programs.

He also called for the full implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as the UN Convention against Corruption, which can "help in the effort to prevent and control drug-related crime that is posing a serious security threat in many parts of the world."

In countries vulnerable to drug trafficking, increased development assistance and bolstering the rule of law are required, Ban said.

"Absent these essentials, these states risk instability and will face even greater challenges in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," he added, referring to the eight anti-poverty targets, agreed on by world leaders, which have a 2015 deadline.

Earlier this week, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) cautioned that in the face of an increasingly brutal struggle for a bigger slice of the US$50 billion global cocaine market between Central American drug cartels, legalizing narcotics would be an "historic mistake."

Antonio Maria Costa, the agency's Executive Director, called for a global boost in drug treatment and crime control, launching the UNODC's 2009 World Drug Report.

"Societies should not have to choose between protecting public health or public security. They can, and should, do both," he said in a call for more resources for drug prevention and treatment, and stronger measures to fight drug-related crime.

Over 40 per cent of the world's cocaine is seized, mostly in Colombia, compared to less than 20 per cent of opiates -- opium, morphine and heroin -- captured, according to the World Drug Report. In West Africa, a major transportation hub for trafficking to Europe, a decline in seizures seems to reflect lower cocaine flows after five years of rapid growth, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2009)