Tackling drug issue a priority for Laos, partners: PM

Drug production, trafficking and abuse is a transnational phenomenon with harmful effects for people and communities of both city and countryside of Laos alike, the nation's Prime Minister said Friday.

Confirming the country's resolve in addressing the issue with international partners, Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong said addiction was an issue deeply affecting users and their families in urban, rural and remote areas of the landlocked and increasingly land-linked country.

The Prime Minister issued the statement for 28th Annual International Day Against Drug Use and Illicit Trafficking, marked globally on June 26 since its establishment in 1987.

"As we know, drugs pose threats to individuals and their families and are the main obstacle for national construction and development," Lao News Agency KPL reported Mr Thongsing as saying.

"They cause corruption, bring out the worst in people, and destroy communities."

He said addiction was affecting too many people in Laos, with particular dangers for youth, students and workers and fueling anti-social street crime including robberies, particularly in the form of bag snatches and muggings.

Calling for a society-wide response in Laos, he thanked international organisations and donors for their ongoing contributions to helping Lao officials and communities address the problem.

Though both remaining illicit drugs of concern in Laos, the primary focus of attention has moved from the opium traditionally produced by the ethnically-diverse inhabitants of border- straddling highland areas to the increasingly multinational flows of synthetic amphetamine-type stimulants.

Cannabis, in use across the region as a therapeutic herb since antiquity, also remains widespread despite its illegal status.

Among the legal drugs, both alcohol and tobacco are cheap and available despite being the primary causes of drug-related deaths in the country and worldwide according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has called for a so-called evidence- based approach to addressing the issue of drug use and addiction, favoring treatment over criminalization. Endi