This essay provides a critical analysis of the United Nations Drug Control Programme's (UNDCP) World Drug Report (WDR, 2000), released on January 22nd 2001. Besides the content of WDR 2000 being far less rich than the content of the previous UNDCP World Drug Report in 1997, a critical analysis suggests that data taken from publications of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction (EMCDDA) and other international agencies has been misrepresented. Such distortions are considered from a methodological point of view, with the original data compared against those reported in WDR (2000). The implications of the biased interpretations for policy making are discussed.
Department of Mathematics, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via Ricerca scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
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☆ This essay was written before Pino Arlacchi relinquished his duties as Executive Director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (which includes UNDCP) on 31 December 2001. Antonio Costa took up the duties of Executive Director on 7 May 2002.
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