INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING

The United Nations has taken the lead in addressing drug abuse and illicit
trafficking. It began when the United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs
banned a wide range of drugs in 1961. Since then, the United Nations has
continued to address the drug abuse and trade issue on the broadest level.
To promote effective cooperation among nations, the United Nations observes
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking each June 26.
On this particular day, we are reminded that the resulting harm that drugs
cause individuals and society outweigh possible benefits from the pleasure
of their use in a recreational context. In Manila, the observance begins
today with the opening of a two-week art exhibition on drug abuse by
elementary and high school students at the Manila Central Post Office
Building, Liwasang Bonifacio.

Drug use, abuse, and trafficking have generally come to be seen as the
social problems of the 20th century. The discussion has gone through cycles
of public awareness, concern, and indifference, and its damaging effect on
society has emerged as never before. The manufacturing, cultivation, and
trafficking of drugs has become another aspect of the global problem of
narcotic abuse, which has called for the widest possible cooperation among
nations.

In the last decade, international drug trafficking networks have increased,
accompanied by political changes and social transitions brought by
modernization and the rapid decline in traditional family relationships. It
is especially prevalent among young people, but factors such as the high
unemployment rate, social justice, and weakened family bonds have created
an environment where drug use and casual relationships offer an opportunity
to look cool before one's peers and to escape the harsh realities of
everyday life.

This development now calls for the widest possible cooperation across
nations to share information, opinions, and experiences and to help those
who tend to underestimate the danger posed by drug abuse and trafficking.

It has not been an easy task to decrease international drug abuse and
illicit trafficking, but there is an indication that government policies
and law enforcement have invested sufficient resources in combating drug
abuse and narcotics trafficking. Individually, if we are to make a
difference, we can at least look at the cost and magnitude of the problem
generated by drug abuse and trafficking and get involved in anti-drug
campaigns. Then we can be sure that being part of the process of containing
it is at least worth our and the whole world's time.