Draft declaration on drug control priorities recommended for adoption by world drug conference.

Draft declaration on drug control priorities recommended for adoption by world drug conference

A provisional draft declaration settingpriorities for future international action against drug abuse and trafficking has been approved by consensus by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, acting as the Preparatory Body for the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The Preparatory Body, at its secondsession (12-18 February, Vienna), also conducted a detailed discussion of the draft "Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Outline of Future Activities in Drug Abuse Control'--to be the main document emanating from the International Conference, which is to be held from 17 to 26 June in Vienna.

The Economic and Social Councilwill review, at its May session in New York, the text of the draft declaration, which is to be adopted at the global conference.

Enrique Parejo Gonzalez (Colombia),Preparatory Body Chairman, told delegates on 17 February that drug abuse was a scourge which "corrupts, undermines and debilitates the very fabric of society'. The struggle against drug trafficking could not be carried out by individual countries relying on their own economic, human and legal resources, he said, but must be the result of pooled efforts of all countries to create new conditions and draw up new instruments.

What was needed, he affirmed, wasa "new mentality' that would enable the international community to confront the problem with legal force proportionate to the illegal forces that had been unleashed by drug trafficking.

Secretary-General Javier Perez deCuellar, in a cable thanking the Chairman for his service to the international struggle against drug abuse and illicit trafficking, referred to the "cowardly attack' of which Mr. Parejo Gonzalez had been the victim a few weeks earlier in Budapest. Mr. Parejo Gonzalez, his country's Ambassador to Hungary, was shot in an incident that has been attributed to a terrorist group involved in international drug trafficking.

The Commission recommendedthat the Conference adopt the draft declaration as an expression of States' political will to combat drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

Among priorities for action wouldbe to assess biological, familial, psychological and social risk factors associated with drug abuse. Other priorities include: strengthening the operating methods of national and international law enforcement bodies; promoting more effective and responsible portrayal of drug...

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