Drugs

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what joint UK/USA initiatives are in place to tackle the production and distribution of drugs.

Bill Rammell
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office works closely with our partners in government to contribute to the delivery of the Government counter narcotics objectives. Within Whitehall the lead for international drugs policy rests with the Home Office.

The UK is in direct and regular political, diplomatic and law enforcement contact with the relevant US authorities in London, Washington and other key locations such as Colombia and Afghanistan. UK and US law enforcement officers work alongside each other in drug producing and transit countries to disrupt production and trafficking. More specifically as part of our co-operation to tackle the illicit drugs trade in Afghanistan, with the US we have jointly established both the Joint Narcotics Analysis Centre and the Inter-agency Operations Coordination Centre to improve law enforcement co-ordination mechanisms.