Crowdsourcing for solutions to drug problem

If you are thinking of speedy solutions, there are none. But something good is coming out of the horizon – to treat the drug problem as an international cause.

Former Speaker Jose de Venecia did suggest an international conference in Manila using ICAPP but the cost would have been astronomical for the Philippines. The biggest cost would be hotel bills for the delegates. I think that item could be taken up by the government of each country or the party of the delegate concerned. It is important to acknowledge that there are many ideas out there.

Russia has gone ahead in this direction with their International Conference of Parliamentarians Against Drugs which was held last Dec. 4 in Moscow.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked at the conference that, “relevant international standards and regulations can serve as a reference point for legislative efforts.”

He cited the UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Problem of Drugs in 2016 clearly confirmed the three UN anti-drug conventions currently in force as the cornerstone of the international legal framework for drug control. 

The conventions provide the foundation for intergovernmental counter-narcotics cooperation. Without these instruments, we would not have had any common standards for legislative support of cooperation and its practical development. Therefore, it is essential that these three universal UN conventions retain their fundamental role in countering the global challenge of drugs.

Drug mafias have found their way into the dark corners of the Internet, establishing their marketplaces in order to peddle drugs outside of any control or supervision.

“As masses of new psychoactive substances become available on the market, the international community has to come up with a creative and joint approach to find a timely and effective way of countering the threat. The synergy between drug trafficking and terrorism has become a reality. Consequently, proceeds from drug trafficking undermine international security and stability.

Faced with these problems, he said we cannot agree with those who propose surrendering to international drug criminals.

“We must pay tribute to the law enforcement officers who often put their lives on the line in the fight against drug-related crimes.”

He went into greater detail on the Afghan drug epidemic. Unfortunately, the recent UNODC data show that the Afghan drug epidemic is increasingly in the nature of a landslide. In 2017, Afghanistan’s drug industry has set another record with the opium-poppy cultivation area increasing by 63 percent to 328,000 hectares. This is an absolute record. Opium-poppy is cultivated in 21 of 34 Afghan provinces. The overall production of opioids in the country has increased 87 percent to 9,000 tons in opium equivalent.

“The scale of this tragedy requires a new level of international solidarity. We call on NATO’s representatives to think about finding common approaches to banishing drug trafficking and the terrorism it feeds from Afghan land.

By building a drug-free world, we will take it a step closer to the ideals enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am confident that by combining the efforts of all parliamentarians, governments and civil society, we will succeed in this task.”

How did Portugal tackled their drugs problem? They hit all directions at once. There was simply no one way to hesitate or discuss methods.

“It was the ’80s, and by the time one in 10 people had slipped into the depths of heroin use – bankers, university students, carpenters, socialites, miners – Portugal was in a state of panic.”

The point is for everyone and anyone to be part of the solution. Álvaro Pereira was a family doctor in Olhão in southern Portugal. “People were injecting themselves in the street, in public squares, in gardens. At that time, not a day passed when there wasn’t a robbery at a local business, or a mugging.”

As a doctor, Pereira tackled the growing wave of addiction the only way he knew how: one patient at a time. This is the reason why Portugal’s campaign was successful.

“A student in her 20s who still lived with her parents might have her family involved in her recovery; a middle-aged man, estranged from his wife and living on the street, faced different risks and needed a different kind of support. Pereira improvised, calling on institutions and individuals in the community to lend a hand.

“In 2001, nearly two decades into Pereira’s accidental specialization in addiction, Portugal became the first country to decriminalize the possession and consumption of all illicit substances. Rather than being arrested, those caught with a personal supply might be given a warning, a small fine, or told to appear before a local commission – a doctor, a lawyer and a social worker – about treatment, harm reduction, and the support services that were available to them.”

The opioid crisis soon stabilized, and led to dramatic drops in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates. HIV infection plummeted from an all-time high in 2000 of 104.2 new cases per million to 4.2 cases per million in 2015. The data behind these changes has been studied and cited as evidence by harm-reduction movements around the globe. It’s misleading, however, to credit these positive results entirely to a change in law.

Here are two different approaches, both of which are valid depending on concrete situations.

MISCELLANY: Laura Black writes this column on the Dengvaxia scandal, “My friends are asking me whether you can bring this highly controversial issue with Amal Cooney, as the problem is causing paranoia amongst parents whose children have been inoculated with this vaccine which was never endorsed by the World Health Organization.?

Ex-DOH secretary Garin is now admitting lapses in judgment and beginning?on Monday, there will be a full scale Senate hearing with Sen JV Ejercito as chairman?of the health committee.?Heads should start to roll considering the seriousness of the problem. The death of a healthy child has already been reported in Bataan.?What is even more disturbing is that this deal was fast tracked by ex-president Aquino?after he personally went to Paris to meet with the Sanofi Pasteur officials.?The price of the vaccine is P9.35 and was purchased by our government for a?staggering price of P1,000, a total of P3.5 billion. ?There was no budget for this amount so the question now is how could the previous ?government justify such a midnight deal.