Aussie
 Drug Injecting Center Opens
Behind frosted glass windows, Australian heroin users injected themselves for the first time in an officially sanctioned center that provides clean needles, counseling and medical staff, authorities said. Australia's first supervised drug injecting center opened Sunday night in the heart of Sydney's seedy Kings Cross strip-club district.
The church-run center, which features stainless steel booths, free-syringe dispensers and a medical treatment room, is on an 18-month trial aimed at reducing drug overdose deaths.
According to recently released figures, less than one percent of the nation's 19 million people used heroin in 1998. But the number of users is rising while their average age falls. Two-thirds of heroin users reported having overdosed on heroin, and there were more than 14,000 hospitalizations nationwide attributed to illicit drug use in 1997-98.
Medical director Ingrid van Beek said eight clients visited the center during its first four hours Monday night. Staff anticipate...
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AFGHANISTAN
 Taliban Rulers Accused of Drug Dealing by U.N.
A U.N. panel accused Afghanistan's rulers of selling opium and heroin to finance its war against northern rebels and to train terrorists.
It called for the U.N. to monitor the drug trade as part of an existing arms embargo.
In a report to the Security Council, the five-member panel questioned the sincerity of the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, when he banned the cultivation last July of poppy, the raw material used to make heroin and opium.
The report said the Taliban was stockpiling the drugs, suggesting it only halted production in order to keep opium and heroin prices from plummeting.
According to the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Afghanistan's opium production was about 2,500 tons in 1998, 4,600 tons in 1999, and 3,100 tons in 2000.
"If Taliban officials were sincere in stopping the production of opium and heroin, then one would expect them to order the destruction of all stocks existing in areas under their control," the report said.
The panel was ...
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