According to the United Nations Information Service, UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, in opening a Forum on "Drug Control in the Baltic Region: New Challenges" in Vilnius stated that "the Baltic region, as well as the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe, remain targets for heroin traffickers […] and Afghan heroin wreaks significant collateral damage -- organized crime, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking and corruption.” UNODC estimates consider Afghan heroin a growing problem across Europe with the number of heroin addicts and HIV/AIDS victims increasing rapidly. Heroin is trafficked across the northern border of Afghanistan into Central Asia, through Russia to Belarus, where it crosses the border into Lithuania.

To address the problem, Mr. Costa called for a combination of responses: the extradition of major traffickers; strikes against clandestine labs; the removal of corrupt officials from office; a zero-tolerance policy toward the involvement of drug lords in processing or trafficking drugs, and a commitment by farmers to refrain from poppy cultivation as a condition for development assistance.

International Antiprohibitionist League Director Marco Perduca, upon returning from his visit to Kabul for the international seminar organized by the European think-tank Senlis Council on the licensing of opium in Afghanistan, issued a statement in which he strongly criticized the lack of creativity that characterizes the proposals elaborated by Mr. Costa.

“In a country that has been ruled by the law of force for over two decades, the application of harsh or zero-tolerance measures runs the risk of being perceived as a continuation of alien intrusion into Afghan affairs” stated Perduca. “Afghan citizens, that for the first time had the opportunity to elect a democratic parliament a few weeks ago, deserve better than strikes or state of police measures, they deserve the force of law as their uniting principle.” As far as Afghan peasants are concerned “instead of being treated like criminals, they should be given the chance to grow a lucrative and useful crop such as opium and its derivatives not only to produce affordable painkillers for national as well as international consumption, but also to provide good quality legal heroin for its distribution under strict medical control for individuals with dependence problems”.

“Costa’s Office” concluded IAL Director “should engage donor countries and Afghan authorities in a brain-storming exercise to assist Afghanistan in reconstructing itself in harmony rather than in destroying the supposedly evil that is produced by drugs. The current framework of counter-narcotics policies is not only ineffective and costly but will not be able to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan population that will continue to live in an ‘informal’ society where more than 50% of its GDP is illegal because opium based.”