Pubdate: Wed, 17 Sep 2003
Source: Daily Nation (Barbados)
Copyright: 2003, Nation Publishing Co. Limited
Contact:  http://www.nationnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2249

NCSA TO TALLY DRUG COSTS

By the end of the year, Barbadians could know definitively if the 
legalisation of illegal drugs would make more economic sense than putting 
increased resources into substance abuse prevention and interdiction.

This is one of the predicted findings of a ground-breaking study: 
Estimating The Human Social And Economic Cost Of Substance Abuse, currently 
being carried out in Barbados by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Commission 
of the Organisation of American States.

According to Tessa Chaderton-Shaw, director of the National Council of 
Substance Abuse (NCSA), the local agency responsible for implementing the 
study here, research is being carried out on the direct and indirect costs 
of drug abuse treatment and prevention.

She said the study would not only provide drug control data on, for 
example, what it costs Government to run treatment facilities, or the NCSA 
but, at a more complex level, it would also investigate the human and 
economic costs to families of dope users.

Shaw said Barbados was privileged to be the only Caribbean state chosen for 
this pilot project, which is also being carried out in Mexico, Uruguay and 
Costa Rica, but the findings would have implications for the management of 
substance abuse on the other islands.
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MAP posted-by: Beth