ALMATY, 27 June 2007 (IRIN) - As Kazakhstan marked international anti-narcotics day on 26 June, health officials expressed cautious optimism that the fight against drugs is showing some progress. There has been a drop in the number of registered drug users, and plans for a regional body which will help combat the drug trade are moving ahead, say officials.

"This problem is being dealt with more actively than it was three or four years ago," Aleksandr Katkov, director of the National Centre for Medical and Social Drug Addiction Problems, told a news conference in Almaty on 26 June. With a more proactive government policy, a fully-fledged strategy is now in place to fight drugs, he added.

One result has been a 6.7 percent drop in the number of registered drug users - down from 427 per 100,000 in 2005 to 398.3 per 100,000 last year.

Kazakhstan now has 53,172 registered drug users in a population of 15 million, but unofficial figures indicate there are four times as many drug users overall. From 1994 to 2006, the number of drug addicts increased 10 times, according to the government figures.

Government strategy

The government's Strategy for Combating Drug Addiction and the Drug Trade outlines plans over the period 2006-2014 to fight narcotics. Public education is a key part of the campaign, which seeks to boost knowledge about the dangers of drug abuse, especially among young people; increase the effectiveness of prevention, identification of risk groups and treatment; and improve healthcare facilities for drug users.

Government strategy also focuses on fighting the drug trade. Kazakhstan lies on a smuggling route from Afghanistan - which produces 92 percent of the world's opium - to Russia and Europe, creating significant challenges, which are exacerbated by porous frontiers and corrupt border guards.

"The transit of narcotics through the territory of Kazakhstan significantly influences the growth in the number of drug addicts in the country," the strategy document says. "Since organised criminal groups are seeking to take the drug trade under control, we can forecast a further increase in the amount of narcotics being trafficked into Kazakhstan, their transit, and also the creation of major transhipment points."

Officials are also concerned about a relatively new phenomenon - the increase of synthetic drugs from Europe which are gaining ground among drug users in Kazakhstan.

Regional cooperation

The fight against drugs has been hampered by a lack of cooperation in Central Asia, but officials are now cautiously optimistic as regional states push ahead with plans to set up a centre to combat trans-national crime.

There are hopes that the Central Asia Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC), which is supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), may be running in pilot form by the end of 2007.

Based in Almaty, CARICC will promote the exchange of criminal intelligence and effective cross-border operations, Tofik Murshudlu, UNODC senior project coordinator, told IRIN. The centre will bring together seven states: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

"The important thing is that partner countries and organisations will have a single focal point for cooperation and information exchange in the region," Murshudlu said.

A key to success is commitment from the countries involved, he added: "[There is] strong support from the countries, and especially from the law-enforcement communities. There is an understanding that if there is not a regional organisation, dismantling these criminal chains will be impossible."

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