The UN Is Wrong About Very Many Things

But it’s right about this:

We like to think that the modern world is more compassionate and humane than in the past. The values of our age mean that moral abominations such as slave trading, mass racial prejudice or cruelty to animals are no longer tolerated. In this progressive climate, there is mounting opposition to the absolute poverty and exploitation of child labour that, tragically, still prevail in large parts of Africa.

Within Europe in recent years, a few influential pop stars and other fashion-conscious celebrities have been at the forefront of efforts to improve living standards in Africa. Bob Geldof's Live Aid concerts and Bono's Drop the Debt campaign have been vital in raising political awareness and money to tackle the continent's economic crisis. Stopping the trade in blood diamonds and promoting fair trade with Africa have been two other favoured causes of the celebrity elite.

And yet for every rebel with a cause, there are 10 others without a clue. While some well-meaning pop idols and film stars might rage against suffering in Africa, their work is being undermined by the drug habits of careless peers such as Kate Moss. For the cocaine used in Europe passes through impoverished countries in west Africa, where the drugs trade is causing untold misery, corruption, violence and instability.

As a result, there is a danger of history repeating itself. In the 19th century, Europe's hunger for slaves devastated west Africa. Two hundred years later, its growing appetite for cocaine could do the same. The former Gold Coast is becoming the Coke Coast. So severe is the problem that it is now threatening to bring about the collapse of some west African nations where weak and corrupt governments are vulnerable to the corrosive influence of drugs money.

This comes at a time when the region was starting to get on its feet after suffering years of conflict and poverty. In short, while some glitterati are trying to save Africa, others are contributing to its demise.

Coke-snorting fashionistas are not only damaging their noses and brains - they are contributing to state failure on the other side of the world. Amy Winehouse might adopt a defiant pose and slur her way through 'Rehab', but does she realise the message she sends to others who are vulnerable to addiction and who cannot afford expensive treatment? Are such stars who flaunt their drug use aware of the damage caused by the trafficking of cocaine from South America via Africa to Europe? One song, one picture, one quote that makes cocaine look cool can undo millions of pounds' worth of anti-drug education and prevention.

Why is this behaviour socially acceptable? If Ms Winehouse advertised fur coats or blood diamonds, there would be a backlash, yet when she is the poster girl for drug abuse, nobody seems to care.

The media deserve much of the blame. The entertainment industry puts a gloss on the latest drugs scandal and uncritically spins the story for all its worth. Notoriety sells, whereas when stars such as Eric Clapton discreetly seek treatment for their addiction there is little interest. If the media want to assume some social responsibility, they should not act as cheerleader or megaphone for celebrity junkies.

At least the media are now shining a spotlight on the crisis in west Africa. Until recently, most of the cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, the world's three major producers, reached Europe via North America.

But improvements in law enforcement, including using satellite technology and heavy patrolling of land and sea, have made traditional trafficking routes a risky business. The once-popular drug route from Venezuela, through the Caribbean island of Haiti and on to Florida, has now been severely curtailed by the intervention of anti-drug agencies. All undeclared flights, for instance, are now tracked. As a result of this intense surveillance, cocaine seizures have increased dramatically. In 2000, 24 per cent of all supplies were intercepted or confiscated. By last year, that figure had gone up to 42 per cent.

Drug traffickers seek the path of least resistance. In Africa, they have found the weakest link. West Africa is a trafficker's paradise, partly because of its geographical position as a link between Europe and South America, partly because its national governments are unable to mount effective security exercises against the drug traders.

These traffickers generally fill up fast boats with around one-and-a-half tons of cocaine, then leave the shores of Venezuela or Colombia by night to avoid detection. Once day breaks on the first morning of the voyage, they cover their vessels with blue tarpaulin and remain motionless, so that they will not be spotted from the air.

They continue this routine over the next four or five days, travelling by night and sitting static in the water by day, until they reach the African coast. The cocaine is unloaded and then repackaged for shipment to Europe. It is moved up the coast hidden in export consignments - crates of fruit or crafts, even frozen fish. Because the cocaine trade from west Africa is relatively new, the European authorities are not looking for it with the same vigilance that applies to goods from South America or the Caribbean, so there are fewer checks.

This burgeoning trade is a disaster for west Africa. It perverts the local economies. In Guinea-Bissau, for example, the value of the drugs trade may be as high as the country's entire national income. It spreads corruption and undermines security.

It is also spreading addiction and related health and social problems, particularly since couriers and other helpers are often paid in kind with narcotics. These addicts certainly won't be going to rehab; there are no treatment facilities available.

Africa has never had a serious drug problem before (leaving aside cannabis cultivation in Morocco that is now in steep decline). A sniff here and a sniff there in Europe are causing another disaster in Africa, to add to its poverty, its mass unemployment and its pandemics.

So cocaine is becoming Europe's problem. In Spain and the United Kingdom, the number of people who use cocaine at least once a year is now higher than in the United States; Italy and France are catching up.

As a result, it is becoming Africa's problem. Celebrities and other high-fliers who think that they can control their 'recreational' drug use should listen again to the refrain of that old JJ Cale song (made famous by Eric Clapton): 'She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie, cocaine.' And if you don't care what cocaine can do to you, at least take responsibility for how it can damage the lives of others.

If celebrities want to do something to help Africa or regions like Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean that are caught in the crossfire of drug trafficking, and if they want to free people from a life of addiction, they should use their influential voices to speak out against drugs.

· Antonio Maria Costa is executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and director-general of the United Nations Office in Vienna