NCSA TO TALLY DRUG COSTS

By the end of the year, Barbadians could know definitively if the
legalisation of illegal drugs would make more economic sense than putting
increased resources into substance abuse prevention and interdiction.

This is one of the predicted findings of a ground-breaking study:
Estimating The Human Social And Economic Cost Of Substance Abuse, currently
being carried out in Barbados by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Commission
of the Organisation of American States.

According to Tessa Chaderton-Shaw, director of the National Council of
Substance Abuse (NCSA), the local agency responsible for implementing the
study here, research is being carried out on the direct and indirect costs
of drug abuse treatment and prevention.

She said the study would not only provide drug control data on, for
example, what it costs Government to run treatment facilities, or the NCSA
but, at a more complex level, it would also investigate the human and
economic costs to families of dope users.

Shaw said Barbados was privileged to be the only Caribbean state chosen for
this pilot project, which is also being carried out in Mexico, Uruguay and
Costa Rica, but the findings would have implications for the management of
substance abuse on the other islands.