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Head of CoE Drug Policy Experts group urges long-term answers for drug abuse

Xinhua, June 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

"We must continue looking for longer term answers that will pass the test of time," declared Jan Malinowski, Executive Secretary of the Pompidou Group - the drug policy expert group of the Council of Europe (CoE) - in an statement released on Friday, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Looking at the scale of the drugs problem, the Executive Secretary noted that "Europe counts not less than 16,000 drug-related deaths per year," with global drug deaths almost ten times that of the number of deaths due to terrorism.

Attempts to fight against the problem have not always been successful, however. The Executive Secretary reflected on what is commonly known as the "war on drugs," and which "many people claim has failed and has caused considerable collateral damage."

Indeed, the American NGO Drug Policy Alliance estimates that the U.S. alone spends more than 51 billion U.S. dollars per year in the war on drugs, and yet countries that experience heavy trafficking problems continue to suffer from extreme violence, such as Mexico where NGO Human Rights Watch estimated that more than 60,000 people were killed in trafficking related killings between 2006 and 2012.

Jan Malinowski chose to cite the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who made a statement in support of the annual drug abuse awareness day, while looking for a new approach.

"We must consider alternatives to criminalization and incarceration of people who use drugs and focus criminal justice efforts on those involved in supply. We should increase the focus on public health, prevention, treatment and care, as well as on economic, social and cultural strategies," declared the UN Secretary-General.

Malinowski went on to note that the "support, don't punish" approach to drug abuse is supported by nearly 150 civil society organizations worldwide.

"This may be the best chance of survival we can offer to the next thousands of potential lethal victims of drugs," the Executive Secretary pleaded.

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illegal Trafficking has been observed annually on June 26 since 1988, and was created by the United Nations General Assembly in order to "strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse."

The Pompidou Group was formed in 1971 of seven European countries in order to share experience and expertise in combatting drug abuse and trafficking. It was incorporated into the CoE in 1980 and currently includes 35 participating countries. Endit