Pubdate: Thu, 22 Nov 2007
Source: Barbados Advocate (Barbados)
Copyright: Barbados Advocate 2007
Contact:  http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3499
Author: Regina Selman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

GIVE PRIORITY TO DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION

A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs)  across the region
have called on regional governments  to allocate more funds towards
Drug Demand Reduction  programmes, in an effort to speed up crucial
interventions where the drug fight is concerned.

This was just one of the proposals coming out of a  two-day NGO
Regional Consultation on Narcotic Drugs for  Latin America and the
Caribbean held in Lima, Peru last  week. Orlando Jones, Director of
CASA " the Centre for  Counselling Addiction Support Alternatives "
spoke on  the behalf of various NGOs in Barbados, including,  Verdun
House, Teen Challenge, the National Committee  for the Prevention of
Alcohol and Drug Dependency  (NCPADD) and Drug Education and
Counselling Service  (DECS). In reporting on the outcome of the
Consultation, Jones mentioned the issue of drug demand  reduction as
one of the pressing topics.

Most of Governments funds go to Supply Reduction in  the name of
national security, for example, the police,  coast guard, customs etc.
The intervention is to stop  the flow of drugs entering the country.
Nevertheless,  according to research conducted by the Caribbean Drug
Abuse Research Institute (CDARI) based in St. Lucia, 60  -70 per cent
of inmates in prisons across the Caribbean  are incarcerated because
of illegal drug use,  possession of drugs or drug-related crime.
Because  politicians dont want to be seen as soft on crime,  most of
the funding goes to supply reduction.

However, delegates at the Consultation agreed that  more funds need
to be directed to Demand Reduction, in  areas of prevention, treatment
and rehabilitation, as  we need to focus on drug-users as sick people
who need  help, instead of incarceration, in the majority of
instances,Jones noted.

Other recommendations coming out of the Consultation  included a call
for the introduction of Drug Courts  across the region, to mandate
treatment for  lawbreakers, and to thereby reduce the level of inmates
  in the prisons, as well as a call for more resources to  be allocated
to increasing Drug Education at the  Primary and Secondary level. A
call was also made for  NGO inclusion in policy-making and programme
implementation at the level of the UNs office on Drugs  and Crime
(UNODC) and the Committee on Narcotic Drugs  (CND). These and other
recommendations will be  forwarded to the Vienna NGO Committee on
Narcotic  Drugs, due to be held in Vienna in June 2008.

One successful recommendation to come about however, is  that of a
two-day training workshop, to be held in  Barbados in June 2008. This
workshop will be co-hosted  by CASA and the NCSA. Funding for the
workshop has  already been secured. The Caribbean representation at
the Regional Consultation came from Barbados, Trinidad,  Jamaica, St.
Lucia, St. Vincent, the British Virgin  Islands and the Dominican Republic. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake