SPORTS AGAINST DRUGS

Tamarine Tanasugarn says, "I have been playing tennis since I was a
kid and over the years, I learned that sports are not only about
winning but also about respect for oneself and respect for others.
When I play, I feel alive, I clear my head, it allows me to be happy
in my own way and as such I can also make other people share the same
joy."

This is how "Tammy" or Tamarine, the number one female Thai tennis
player, interprets her success-not only in sports but also in life.
Sport has given her the answer to the meaning she was looking for and
to the life she wants to live.

Many others, however, find a different answer when asked the same
question: rather than self-respect they find drugs, rather than joy
they share artificial happiness, rather than winning they lose their
chances in a few dragon's puffs.

In order to show that alternatives are possible, Tammy has decided to
support the efforts of the United Nations International Drug Control
Programme by becoming the UNDCP Young Sports Messenger, the first
young lady to become a UN sports messenger and the first Asian named
UN sports messenger.

Drug abuse is rampant in many Asian countries.

For some deprived, disillusioned, poor and disadvantaged people using
drugs may be a way to cope with pain, isolation, abuse and neglect
where there are few alternatives.

For some others, it may be a way to respond to the pressure of our
increasingly global society, which requires individuals to be
increasingly faster, better, more productive, more durable.

And for some, it may be the confidence they cannot find in themselves,
the ability to socialise and interact with others under the effect of
an empathy that is made of plastic.

Sports can serve as a powerful tool to express and release emotions,
installing values and principles that far transcend the physical
activity at hand.

Through sports, team-playing, competition and the experience of
victory and defeat, people can develop will-power, acquire
self-confidence and respect and learn to face problems and opponents
with courage and to overcome obstacles with firmness.

As part of its global efforts to mobilise society in the prevention
and reduction of drug abuse, UNDCP Regional Centre for East Asia and
the Pacific is promoting "Sports end Drugs" as this year's theme for
the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on
Tuesday, June 26.

The event will take place at the Siam Discovery Centre in Pathumwan
starting at 2pm.