Draft declaration on drug control priorities recommended for adoption by world drug conference.

Draft declaration on drug control priorities recommended for adoption by world drug conference

A provisional draft declaration settingpriorities for future international action against drug abuse and trafficking has been approved by consensus by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, acting as the Preparatory Body for the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The Preparatory Body, at its secondsession (12-18 February, Vienna), also conducted a detailed discussion of the draft "Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Outline of Future Activities in Drug Abuse Control'--to be the main document emanating from the International Conference, which is to be held from 17 to 26 June in Vienna.

The Economic and Social Councilwill review, at its May session in New York, the text of the draft declaration, which is to be adopted at the global conference.

Enrique Parejo Gonzalez (Colombia),Preparatory Body Chairman, told delegates on 17 February that drug abuse was a scourge which "corrupts, undermines and debilitates the very fabric of society'. The struggle against drug trafficking could not be carried out by individual countries relying on their own economic, human and legal resources, he said, but must be the result of pooled efforts of all countries to create new conditions and draw up new instruments.

What was needed, he affirmed, wasa "new mentality' that would enable the international community to confront the problem with legal force proportionate to the illegal forces that had been unleashed by drug trafficking.

Secretary-General Javier Perez deCuellar, in a cable thanking the Chairman for his service to the international struggle against drug abuse and illicit trafficking, referred to the "cowardly attack' of which Mr. Parejo Gonzalez had been the victim a few weeks earlier in Budapest. Mr. Parejo Gonzalez, his country's Ambassador to Hungary, was shot in an incident that has been attributed to a terrorist group involved in international drug trafficking.

The Commission recommendedthat the Conference adopt the draft declaration as an expression of States' political will to combat drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

Among priorities for action wouldbe to assess biological, familial, psychological and social risk factors associated with drug abuse. Other priorities include: strengthening the operating methods of national and international law enforcement bodies; promoting more effective and responsible portrayal of drug abuse in the media; enlisting more contributions from international financial institutions and Governments for expanded rural development activities to support eradication of illicit crops; and developing and co-ordinating international efforts to prevent and reduce drug abuse in schools and the work place.

The draft "Comprehensive MultidisciplinaryOutline' is a compendium of far-reaching measures at the national, regional and international levels aimed at involving all segments of society--governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), other groups and individuals--in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse (see special section). Drug control activities recommended in the draft Outline focus on four major areas: drug abuse prevention and reduction of illicit demand for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; control of supply; suppression of illicit drug trafficking; and treatment and rehabilitation of drug abusers.

In a chapter-by-chapter discussionof the text, Commission members touched on such issues as the cost and effectiveness of proposed controls; implementation difficulties faced by developing countries with limited resources; co-ordination problems between States with different legal and social systems; legal and commercial ramifications of intercepting ships and aircraft carrying illicit drug shipments; extradition and human rights; and overlap of proposed measures with existing agreements.

The Preparatory Body asked theSecretary-General of the Conference, Tamar Oppenheimer, to indicate in the revised version of the draft Outline "incompatible suggestions or suggestions open to various interpretations', on the understanding that they would be considered further in the Main Committee of the Conference. The Conference secretariat was asked to keep in mind, in preparing the revision, the causes which give rise to the steady increase in the production of, trafficking in and illicit consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Mrs. Oppenheimer, addressing thePreparatory Body on 13 February, said the enthusiastic national and international response to the Secretary-General's call for a conference on drug abuse at the ministerial level was indicative of world-wide concern over the problem.

Among the pre-Conference activitiesof particular interest, she noted, was the Interregional Conference on the Involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations in Prevention and Reduction of the Demand for Drugs. Held in Stockholm, 15 to 19 September 1986, it had attracted a wide range of NGOs, many of which had not previously included drug control in their activities.

An NGO forum will also be held inconjunction with the Vienna Conference, Mrs. Oppenheimer reported.

Photo: Tamar OppenheimerConference Secretary-General