A new United Nations report released Monday showed that the world drug problem is being contained, with a minor decline in global opium production and the cocaine production being stabilized.

In an annual report issued on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that global opium production fell 5 percent in 2005 while cocaine production was broadly stable. Seizures of both drugs, especially cocaine, reached record highs.

Consumption of cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug, continued to increase while the market for amphetamine-type stimulants stabilized, according to the report. Africa is growing in importance for trans-shipments of cocaine and heroin to Europe.

"Drug control is working and the world drug problem is being contained," UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in presenting the report, noting that trends in the global drugs market were moving in the right direction but governments needed to step up their efforts to reduce both supply and demand.

"This is true whether we look over the long term or even just over the past few years. Humanity has entered the 21st century with much lower levels of drug cultivation and drug addiction than 100 years earlier," he said.

"Even more importantly, in the past few years, worldwide efforts to reduce the threat posed by illicit drugs have halted a quarter century-long rise in drug abuse that, if left unchecked, could have become a global pandemic."

Source: Xinhua