Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s new head of criminal police services, François Schmutz, says that the amount of heroin on offer in Geneva has risen substantially, compared to 10 years ago. The price is considerably cheaper, he points out, making Geneva an attractive destination for buyers, 70-80 percent of whom come from outside the canton.
Heroin in other French-speaking cantons in Switzerland is CHF70-100 a gram, while in France it is 1.5 times that. The per gram cost in Geneva is just CHF28, Schmutz told Le Temps newspaper in the first interview he has given.
Geneva and Lausanne (GenevaLunch) – Authorities are concerned that heroin being passed as cocaine is being sold on the streets. This, authorities say, can be potentially deadly for drug users.
According to authorities, snorting heroin can induce a cardio-respiratory failure. A man died in Geneva this week after snorting heroin which he believed was cocaine. The drug dealer who sold the man the fatal dose was arrested, however, authorities believe there is still more heroin on the streets being passed as cocaine.
Heroin seized by the Canton Vaud Police - Courtesy PCV
In other related news, the Canton Vaud Police announced it had dismantled a network responsible for importing 42 kilos of heroine to Switzerland within a five month period.
Fifteen people were arrested in Lausanne, Zurich and Neuchatel during the o
ne-year operation. Thirteen out of 15 people arrested were from Kosovo, where the authorities say, the drug was coming from.
The British government says that it is “alarmed and deeply concerned” by the Chinese high court’s decision to execute British citizen Akmal Shaikh, age 53, accused of smuggling heroin. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s request 21 December to reprieve the man appears to have been turned down, with a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson saying at a regular news conference that he is slated to be executed. Shaikh looks likely to be the first British citizen sentenced to death in China in 50 years.
Shaikh’s family has not seen him for several years, but family members and the British government say they believe him to be suffering from untreated bipolar disorder and possibly an additional delusional disorder that explain his erratic behaviour before his arrest in Urumqi, in western China, in July 2007. He left the UK to set up an airline in Poland, although he had no money, and then left for Kyrgystan to become a pop star. He claims that he was given the suitcase with heroin by a fellow traveler. China says he has had a fair trial. He is sentenced to die 29 December.
Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world’s opium poppy, and an estimated 900 tons of opium and 375 tons of heroin, the world’s most dangerous drug, says the UN’s Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a report out 21 October. This is feeding a habit that has ensnared 15 million addicts in a trade worth $65 billion yearly. Each year more than five times as many people (10,000) die of heroin overdoses in Nato countries than soldiers have on the battlefield in Afghanistan since the war began eight years ago.
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa says more effort should be expended on tracing the countervailing “value chain” of money that flows back to nascent and increasingly more powerful drug lords in Afghanistan, many connected to the Taliban. UNODC estimates that the Taliban may be making double the money in taxes on production and trade than they were 10 years ago. The estimates range from $90-160 million per year.
The cost and effort of stopping the flow of drugs out of Afghanistan is immeasurably easier at the source than in the consuming nations of Europe and Russia. Once the drugs reach the countries of southeastern Europe, only an estimated 2-4 percent is caught by drug enforcement officials, whereas Iran intercepts about 20 percent of the drugs moving across its territory. The farther the drugs move from the source, the more it increases in value.
Singer Natalie Cole, daughter of legendary singer Nat King Cole, appeared on a CNN talk show Tuesday 31 March to discuss her long battle with drug abuse and hepatitis C. Intensive chemotherapy caused both of Cole’s kidneys to fail and she is now on dialysis three times a week. On airing the show, CNN studios received a flood of emails from people offering to donate a kidney should they turn out to be a match. CNN
