Nairobi — Tanzania is experiencing an increase in narcotics consumption, the United States warned last week. It attributed the rise to economic liberalisation and an upsurge in tourism, especially in Zanzibar.

The new US report on the international narcotics trade implies that use of illegal drugs is growing more quickly in Tanzania than in Kenya or Uganda.

However, when contacted by The EastAfrican last week, no Tanzanian official volunteered to comment on the accusations: The acting commissioner of the Anti-Drug Commission, Aida Tesha, said she was not its spokesperson. The commissioner, Christopher Shekiondo was in Geneva, Switzerland and was expected in the country on Tuesday this week.

The office of the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) also declined comment. The spokesman, Adadi Rajabu, is out of the country, said Ally Mally, the assistant commissioner of police. He referred the matter to the officer commanding Police Drugs Unit, Isaack Mugasa, who also declined to comment.

The State Department survey of more than 100 countries also sees corruption as a major impediment to the control of narcotics in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. At the same time, however, co-operation among the three East African states has resulted in significant increases in effectiveness in each nation's narcotics control efforts, the report observes.

Until the late 1980s, the State Department recounts, Tanzania's contact with drugs was largely limited to the traditional cultivation of cannabis in some parts of the mainland. Since then, economic liberalisation has brought increased affluence to the expatriate community and some urban Tanzanians.

This affluence has driven demand for new drugs like mandrax, cocaine, heroin, and opium, which have found their way through Tanzania's porous borders. Growing numbers of younger Tanzanians are also abusing relatively affordable drugs such as cannabis and mandrax, according to the study. Domestic production of cannabis, described in the report as a significant problem, is said to be increasing. Hard drugs like heroin and cocaine, including some crack cocaine, are used in small quantities within the affluent classes, the report adds.

The growth of the tourism industry, particularly in Zanzibar, has created a larger demand for narcotics there. Drugs entering Tanzania originate from Asia and the Middle East - specifically, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Burma, Iran and Syria, the report says.

The illegal substances cross Tanzania's borders via air, rail, road and sea. The State Department identifies the airports and seaports at Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar as major points of entry, along with the Kilimanjaro airport and smaller seaports such as Tanga and Mtwara.

Mules - traffickers who swallow hard drugs before crossing borders - are travelling by land from Tanzania into Kenya and Malawi where they catch international and regional flights, the report says.

The amount of heroin and hashish transiting Kenya enroute mainly to Europe continued to decline in 2004 from a peak reached three years earlier, according to the report. The narcotics trade is not as significant in Uganda, according to the report.

Overall enforcement of anti-narcotics laws is weak in both Kenya and Tanzania, the report suggests, although it cites improvements in surveillance at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Interdiction of narcotics shipments by sea has been unsuccessful in Kenya because of deficiencies in the funding and staffing of police units, the report says.

Efforts to reduce drug smuggling in shipping containers have generally failed due to rampant corruption among Customs officials, police and the judiciary, the State Department charges. It adds that the British High Commission grew so frustrated by information leaks related to narcotics seizures that it ceased training Kenyan customs officials.

Pervasive corruption among police officials is also noted in regard to Tanzania. It is widely believed that corrupt officials at airports facilitate the transshipment of narcotics through Tanzania, the US report says, adding, that many believe that corruption in the courts leads to light sentencing of convicted narcotics offenders.

Tanzanian anti-narcotics teams further lack the resources needed to fight the drug trade, the US says. The harbour unit, for example, must rely on modified wooden dhows to interdict smugglers because it lacks modern patrol boats.

Tanzania's efforts against narcotics are narrowly focused on street pushers and individual mule-carriers and are not effective at limiting narcotics trafficking, the report says. While increasing the number of smugglers apprehended, Tanzanian law enforcement has not been able to translate small seizures into the prosecution of top leaders of organised narcotic rings.