DRUG addiction is “more than just a policy issue” and it is the duty of every government to deal with the problem head on, according to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“It is personal. The reality is that drugs and addiction are not abstract issues. All of us have stories. It is our duty to act, and act now,” Guterres said in a recent event sponsored by US President Donald Trump.
The UN chief noted that about 450,000 people worldwide die every year from overdoses or drug-related health issues.
In recent years, he said, “some 31 million people around the world” required drug-addiction treatment.
“National priorities may differ, but the global community shares a common goal, to protect people’s security, health and well-being,” Guterres pointed out.
He gave assurances that the UN stands behind the UN Drug Control Conventions and the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session outcome document.
“The United Nations system, and I personally, stand ready to support governments in meeting the challenge of the world drug problem. Failure is, indeed, not an option. Together we will succeed. We will never give up,” Guterres said.
In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte said “drugs have destroyed the lives of many people, relationships and marriages, a problem that has been the root of criminalities, and breakdown of families.”
The President vowed that he is dead set on solving the drug problem or else millions of drug addicts and drug pushers “will comprise the next generation of Filipinos.”
The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) 2015 survey showed that there were at least 1.8 million drug users nationwide and about 4.8 million had also used illegal drugs once in their lives.
In 2017, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) estimated that there were 4.7 million drug users.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano also in 2017 told the UN that “the Philippines integrates the human rights agenda in its development initiatives for the purpose of protecting everyone, especially the most vulnerable, from lawlessness, violence and anarchy.”
He said the very principle of “responsibility to protect” must encompass the vast majority of peaceful law-abiding people who must be protected from those who are not.
“As a responsible leader, the country’s President, Rodrigo Duterte, launched a vigorous campaign against the illegal drug trade “to save lives, preserve families, protect communities and stop the country’s slide into a narco-state,” Cayetano said.
He said the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign “was never an instrument to violate any individual’s or group’s human rights.”
Cayetano noted that as of August 2017, the drug trade had penetrated at least 24,848 barangay (villages).
This is 59 percent of the total of 42,036 of the smallest government units spanning the Philippine archipelago.
“The Philippines has also discovered the intimate and symbiotic relationship between terrorism vis-à-vis poverty and the illegal drug trade,” Cayetano said.
Guterres said non-medical use of tramadol in parts of Africa and the Middle East is threatening communities that are already fragile.
And the United States is in an “utterly heartbreaking” opioid crisis, according to him.
He is worried that only one in six people who need drug-addiction treatment receives it, and for women, the figure is even higher.
Guterres had proposed “strong action in two areas” to address drug addiction.
First, he raised the urgency to “crack down on drug trafficking and those who profit from human misery,”
specifically by denying them safe havens and better cross-border cooperation; improving intelligence-sharing and analysis across drug supply chains; and targeting the links between drugs, corruption, arms, human trafficking and terrorist networks.
Second, he called for the need for drug-addiction treatment, with consumers being “first and foremost, patients and victims.”
Guterres said this was the policy he employed as Portugal’s Prime Minister some 20 years ago, when the country had some of Europe’s highest drug abuse death rates and the highest rate of HIV among injecting drug users.
“And the policy worked. There was an increase in the quantity of drugs seized and in the efficiency of police and Customs operations,” the UN chief added.
He said drug consumption dropped “significantly, particularly among youth,” drug users declined by 50 percent and drug-related infectious diseases and the number of people overdosing also plunged.
Trump had raised the need to combat drug addiction and stop all forms of trafficking and smuggling.
“The scourge of drug addiction continues to claim too many lives in the US and the nations around the world. Today we commit to fighting the drug epidemic together,” he said.
Citing the 2018 World Drug Report, Trump added that cocaine and opium production has hit record highs, noting that global drug-related deaths have gone up 60 percent in 15 years.
He deplored the link between illicit drugs and organized crime, illegal financial flows, corruption and terrorism.
“It is vital for public health and national security that we fight drug addiction and stop all forms of trafficking and smuggling that provide the financial lifeblood for vicious trans-national cartels.”
“All of us must work together to dismantle drug production and defeat drug addiction,” Trump said, recalling the US’ call to action in August 2018 on the world drug problem.
“Reduce drug demand, cut off the supply of illicit drugs, expand treatment and strengthen international cooperation. If we take these steps together, we can save the lives of countless people in all corners of the world,” he added.