BERLIN, Germany, Mar 2, CMC – Central America and the Caribbean are among the regions with the highest violence and homicide rates worldwide, and continue to be affected by drug trafficking and drug-related violence, according to a new report released Wednesday by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

The 2015 report identifies the protection of health and welfare as central to the three international drug control treaties and recommends a balanced and humane approach to realising agreed objectives.

The report notes that the number of killings linked to organized crime has risen in areas where criminal groups fight to gain control of the local drug market.

“Criminal groups’ struggles to control local markets as well as the increasing availability of drugs have led to a rise in crime and homicide rates,” the report stated, noting “drug trafficking has become a major security threat and is contributing to an increase in drug abuse.

“An additional factor is that drug traffickers are often paid in drugs, rather than cash. Cocaine abuse in the region remains higher than the global average and inhalant abuse is particularly high in the Caribbean.”

The report, which will provide input to the Special; Session of the United nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem to be convened in New York, April 10-21,  noted that law enforcement authorities have reported a significant change in trafficking patterns.

It said drug traffickers often cancel confirmed flights at the last minute, only to make new bookings immediately afterwards on the same flight, in an attempt to avoid being detected during the process of passenger list screening.

“The Central America and Caribbean region remains a significant supplier of cannabis and a transit route for cocaine to North America and Europe,” the 2015 report noted.

INCB president Werner Sipp said the special UN session will review progress in international cooperation in countering the drug problem and assess the achievements and challenges in global drug control.

“INCB is contributing to the special session with experience and insight accumulated over decades of monitoring the implementation of the three international drug control conventions and identifying achievements, challenges and gaps in drug control.”

He said at a time of debate on the best way forward in drug policy, INCB stresses that the conventions do not mandate a “war on drugs”.

“The option for future drug policy is not to choose between “militarized” drug law enforcement on one hand and the legalization of nonmedical use of drugs on the other, but to put health and welfare at the centre of drug policy and to fully implement the goals and principles of the conventions and the political declarations.

“The conventions provide governments with flexibility in their implementation. While the conventions unambiguously require that the use of drugs must be limited exclusively to medical and scientific purposes, they give room for flexible responses to unlawful behaviour: any reaction to drug-related offences must be proportionate,” he wrote in the report.