UNITED NATIONS, June 8: The United Nations General Assembly, for the first time, will endorse demand reduction among the strategies in the fight against illicit drugs during its special session which begins today.US President Bill Clinton will lead world leaders at the session in extending political support to the efforts aimed at ``drug free'' world and promising to be tough on drug traffickers who ruin lives of millions of young people.More than 35 heads of state and government, including French President Jacques Chirac, will attend the three-day session.A high-powered Indian delegation is led by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Jaswant Singh and it includes Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi.United Nations top officials are proposing the session, billed as ``drug summit'', endorse the ambitious targets of eliminating opium and cocaine plantations, reducing demand by fifty per cent and substantially decreasing the production of marijuana over next ten years.Chief of United NationsInternational Drug Control Progamme (UNIDCP) Pino Arlacchi opines that the targets are achievable and also do not require the kind of money that nations cannot afford.Arlaachi came to the UNIDCP with tough reputation earned successfully fighting mafia in his native Italy.Money laundering is another aspect of the illicit drug trade that the session will closely look into. Arlaachi advocates some kind of control on and operating rules for offshore banks through which large amounts are laundered.These banks are under the control or regulation of no one and easy to set up and operate especially with the availability of good communications and computers.
