"It is urgent for these programmes to be fully recognised by the United Nations drug control bodies to prevent a world health disaster," the Senlis Council said in a statement.

In its report for 2003, the International Narcotics Control Boardwarned that an increase in opium poppy production in Afghanistan was fuelling heroin abuse and the spread of HIV in the Baltic states, China, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa and the Ukraine.

The Senlis Council said the INCB's "rigid ideological stance" however prompted it to denounce the provision of safe injecting rooms and clean needles for drug users because these steps do not comply with international drug control treaties.

"Drug policy is still in a crisis situation. These treaties, based on a repressive approach, have been failing to tackle the drug problem for the past 40 years," the group said after the INCB released its report in Vienna.

It added that by not recognising these programmes the INCB was "impeding countries and the international community from fighting the huge and urgent threat of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

Other UN bodies like UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation were "supportive of these measures which have proved to be effective, safe and much less costly than repressive supply control measures based on law enforcement," it added.

Senlis was formed in the French town of the same name in 2002. It groups politicians, academics and non-governmental organisations and searches for new inititiaves on drug policy.

Its director, Emmanuel Reinert, urged the INCB to take a more practical approach in outlining policy.

"The drug issue is multi-dimensional and needs to be tackled in a pragmatic, evidence-based way, avoiding ideological stances which hinder responsible policy development."

TERRA.WIRE