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.