"The Internet provides a lot of extremely dangerous information," said Pino Arlacchi, head of the Vienna-based United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention. "You can enter a completely different world where the issue is treated in the opposite view as it should be. And unfortunately, these views are spreading, and we are now thinking about some instrument to at least stop the expansion of this flow of information."

Arlacchi is looking into classifying online illicit drug sales as a universal crime like genocide or war crimes. The universal jurisdiction means the crimes can be pursued internationally.

Arlacchi said with the illegal drug market, the Internet is "more and more important in providing exchanges of information, in expanding the market, particularly the final market, and we are very worried about it."

He added, "It is extremely difficult to route a case into a precise jurisdiction. So we believe that this problem is encouraging us to go in the direction of universal jurisdiction."

The issue will be discussed at a U.N. symposium in Palermo, Italy, scheduled for the end of this year.

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