The region’s leading drug control officials will meet here this week to examine the impact of the illicit drug trade in the region and how to respond more efficiently to threats.
The Organisation of America States (OAS) said the 52nd Regular Session of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) takes place from November 28 to 30.
Costa Rican President, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, will offer opening remarks, as that country assumes the presidency of CICAD for the period 2012-2013.
During the meeting, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza will report to the Commissioners on the ongoing development of the report on the drug problem in the Americas, which was mandated by the heads of state at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena in April 2012.
The Commission will review a new set of evaluation procedures, standards and criteria for the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), the OAS’s instrument for assessing the efforts of Member States in dealing comprehensively with the global drug problem.
The OAS said the new instrument recasts the process within the framework of the Hemispheric Drug Strategy, approved by the General Assembly in June 2010, and its Plan of Action, 2011-2015, adopted a year later.
The Commission will also take a “hard look” at the increasing toll of organized crime on public security, the rule of law, the economy and civil society, as well as the latest trends in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs, money laundering and corruption, the OAS said.
“To offset the drug trade’s damage, the Commission will examine how a social integration policy can create channels for former drug users to rejoin their communities as productive members; how drug treatment courts can be adapted to deal with drug dependent offenders as an alternative for incarceration; and how the public health system can address the new priorities introduced by rising substance use,” the statement said.
Part of the three-day meeting will focus on CICAD’s future operations, as well as reports from Executive Secretary Paul Simons and CICAD’s expert groups.
CICAD is the Western Hemisphere’s policy forum for dealing with the drug problem.
