Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky presents INCB report at UN press conference

At a United Nations press conference yesterday, Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky presented the International Narcotics Control Board's 2010 annual report. The International Narcotics Control Board, of which Levitsky is an elected member, is the independent and quasi-judicial control organization monitoring the implementation of the United Nations drug control conventions.

A central theme of this year's report was the role of corruption in drug trafficking and what governments can do to combat the corruption. "By employing corruption and violence [drug traffickers] are able to avoid law enforcement, interdiction, eradication of drug crop and such things as extradition to jurisdictions that want to prosecute them," Levitsky reported. "Corruption plagues not only our area of drug control, it also weakens governments and institutions."

[Read the full report]