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Last Updated: Dec 29, 2011 - 2:18:31 AM |
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The
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the
Organization of American States (OAS) today published its latest
report on the progress of drug control in the region, containing 350
recommendations for countries facing this problem, of which 38
percent involve control measures, 28 percent demand reduction, 24
percent supply reduction, and 17 the strengthening of
institutions.
The report recommends countries to strengthen
their anti-drug policies in the following areas: controlling illicit
traffic, pharmaceutical products, money laundering, and ratifying
international conventions recommended by the Multilateral Evaluation
Mechanism (MEM); the implementation of programs of prevention and
drug abuse, in addition to evaluating and expanding coverage of
existing programs. Furthermore, Member States are advised to
establish national registries of public officials formally accused
and sentenced for illicitly trafficking in drugs.
“This new
MEM report and above all the recommendations contained in it are an
essential reference for all those involved in designing drug
policies in our Hemisphere,” OAS Secretary General José Miguel
Insulza said.
“The inter-pares evaluation mechanism gives
force and legitimacy to the MEM, and constitutes an excellent
example of how the OAS decisively contributes to finding substantive
meeting points for countries to solve the problems they face and
that are of concern to our people, and specifically in this
phenomenon that causes so much harm to countries of the region,” the
head of the hemispheric organization added.
The OAS Secretary
for Multidimensional Security, Adam Blackwell, who oversees the
workings of the CICAD, highlighted that “the Commission’s report
highlights the need to face one of the weakest points in most of the
countries of the region, and that is controlling the sale of drugs
through the Internet.”
Ambassador Blackwell added on this
important point that the CICAD recommends “the implementation of
research and training activities related to the prevention and
control of illicit trafficking in pharmaceutical products and other
drugs on the Internet that allow for the identification of the
national needs at the normative and operative levels.”
The
document also highlights that, according to epidemiological studies
conducted by 33 countries between 2006 and 2009, marihuana is, after
alcohol and tobacco, the drug of highest consumption in the
Hemisphere by the population in general, and particularly the young
population.
Regarding supply reduction, the report indicates
that during 2006 to 2008, “the total number of illegal drug
laboratories rises to 37,900, of which more than 27,000 correspond
to drugs of organic origin (mainly cocaine) and more than 10,000
correspond to synthetic drugs (mainly methamphetamines).”
The
MEM is an instrument for measuring the activities against drugs
conducted in the 34 Member States of the CICAD. This measure is
conducted through the elaboration of national and hemispheric
evaluation reports on drug control. The reports produced within the
MEM process are written by government experts named by the Member
States. Each country is entitled to a head expert and alternate
experts; each country has one voice and experts don’t participate in
evaluating their own country.
The full text of the report is
available here.
For
more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2011 by thebahamasweekly.com
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