Yesterday, on June 26 - International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, World Drug Report (2013) was launched at the high level for the first time within the framework of the CND, at UNODC Headquarters in Vienna.

Many prominent political figures within the drug policy field attended the event, among them were Austrian State Secretary, Reinhold Lopatka; Director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, Victor P. Ivanov; Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, White House, Gil Kerlikowski; INCB President Raymond Yans and many others.

Also in attendance was UN Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson (picture to the right), who said that there was neither peace nor development without the respect for human rights and the UN Conventions formed the basis for international law and human rights (i.a.).

Mr. Kerlikowski and Herr Lopatka remarked on the growing input of civil society organisations to the work of states` structures. ECAD was present at the event, being a Board member of the Vienna NGO Committee on drugs. Committee Chair, Michel Perron (CEO of the CCSA, Canada Centre on Substance Abuse) made a statement (picture to the left) on behalf of all NGO-members (Download and read as PDF)

Executive Director of the UNODC, Mr. Fedotov noted that the international drug control conventions were helping to contain and stabilize the level of drug consumption, but said there were concerns about the violence generated by illicit drug trafficking, particularly, in Central America; as well as the fact that some national laws and practices could be vulnerable to human rights violations.

"The real issue, however, is not to amend the conventions, but to implement them according to their original spirit and intention. A first step towards achieving this goal is to recognize that the conventions were created to protect the health and welfare of mankind," said Mr. Fedotov.

The 1st ISCE International Congress on Drugs and Dependencies was held by Social and Cultural Department in conjunction with the Centre for Drug Misuse Research - Scotland, in Lisbon – Odivelas, Portugal, and besides European Cities Against Drugs there were representatives of the World Federation Against Drugs, International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy, Drug Watch International, Association for a Drug Free Portugal and other national and international organizations.

ECAD Director Jörgen Svidèn participated in one of the forum panels with a presentation ”Drugs and the Media”. The Congress was initiated by ECAD’s National Representative in Portugal, Dr. Manuel Pinto Coelho.

This forum gathered many prominent speakers: Professor Neil McKeganey from Scotland, former director of the UNODC Antonio Maria Costa, Professor Kevin Sabet from Florida University, President of the INCB Raymond Yans, EMCDDA’s Executive Director Wolfgang Goetz, Executive Councellor David Raynes, Secretary General of EURAD Fay Watson and many others.

The Congress covered a wide range of important issues concerning drugs; it complements by far to the relentless work against legalisation of drugs and adds more structure to the forthcoming activities of many participating agencies and individuals, so that as few as possible will get addicted to narcotic substances.

Besides the Congress, several networking meetings were held among the delegates. It was decided i.a. to create a broad coalition that will show the unity among a vast majority of the world’s leaders and citizens against illicit drugs.

In fact, less than five percent of the worlds populations has ever tried illicit drugs the last year and a lot fewer are addicted to drugs.

Nearly 100 percent of the present leaders in the around 200 independent states of the world oppose drug legalization.

This unity is a strong message and the aim is to better express and illustrate this in the near future. ECAD are happy to play a vital role in this work.