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PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THEOEA/Ser.G
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATESCP/CSH/INF. 144/07
10 December 2007
COMMITTEE ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITYOriginal: English
INTER-AMERICAN DRUG ABUSE CONTROL COMMISSION (CICAD):
REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITY
(Presented at the meeting held on December 7, 2007)
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INTER-AMERICAN DRUG ABUSE CONTROL COMMISSION (CICAD):
REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITY
(Presented at the meeting held on December 7, 2007)
The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) has maintained an active agenda of activities over the past six months, which can be grouped in five general areas: Demand Reduction, Supply Reduction, Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), Institutional Development and Research. This report also includes a final section on international cooperation, especially as it bears on funding. The listing is not comprehensive, but highlights the most noteworthy projects and initiatives this year.
- DEMAND REDUCTION
CICAD’s Demand Reduction Program covers two broad areas: substance abuse prevention and the treatment and rehabilitation of drug-dependent persons. Demand Reduction has a substantial portfolio of projects, but special emphasis was placed on the following activities in the second half of 2007:
EU-LAC drug treatment city partnerships
With funding from the European Commission, CICAD is developing an ambitious three-year twin-city initiative to bring together local governments in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean to share best practices in drug abuse treatment, including alternatives to incarceration for minor offenders. In April, 2008, the first inter-regional drug treatment forum in Santo Domingo will bring together delegations from more than 50 cities as well as representatives from national drug council representatives from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.
On-line certificate program on substance prevention and treatment
CICAD partnered with the University of the West Indies (UWI) to launch an on-line certificate program on substance abuse prevention and treatment aimed at the English-speaking Caribbean. On-line classes started in September with a level of participation sufficient to sustain thisfee-based program.
Workplace prevention
CICAD is embarking on a two-year effort, through its Demand Reduction Expert Group, to draft hemispheric guidelines on substance abuse prevention in the workplace, similar to the school-based prevention guidelines that CICAD approved in 2005.
Central American training program for substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation
In El Salvador, CICAD has completed the first year of a program to upgrade the skills of 500 counselors and support staff at 34 non-governmental drug abuse treatment centers and at El Salvador’s four governmental juvenile detention centers. The program is being expanded to Guatemala and will eventually contain a certification component for treatment counselors and staff, the first of its kind in Latin America.
- SUPPLY REDUCTION AND CONTROL MEASURES
CICAD’s supply reduction and control activities are aimed at helping member states improve their capacity to reduce the production, distribution and availability of illicit drugs and the diversion of chemical products used in the manufacture of drugs. CICAD’s anti-money laundering control program seeks to carry out capacity-building programs focused on enhancing the knowledge and skills of law enforcement agents, judges and prosecutors as well as specialists from financial intelligence units. Also, CICAD’s alternative development program seeks to support member states to carry out development projects to reduce, eliminate or prevent the illicit cultivation of coca, poppy and cannabis, using a holistic approach to improve the overall social and economic situation of the population involved:
Law enforcement training
In 2007, the Supply Reduction and Control training program organized 37 regional or national training seminars for nearly 1,000 law enforcement and customs officers covering a wide range of subjects such as the control of chemicals, officer safety, maritime cooperation, profiling of suspicious containers and passengers, port security and vessel inspection. In addition, CICAD conducted a training program to involve private sector participation in port and airport security.
Illicit Internet sales of drugs
In response to the growing use of the Internet for illicit sales of controlled substances (both legitimate and counterfeit), CICAD partnered with Microsoft to deliver a series of five seminars on the tools, resources and techniques needed to investigate the sale of drugs over the Internet. Delivered in Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica and Mexico with support from the U.S. Embassy Narcotics Affairs Sections (NAS) in the host countries, these seminars trained 150 law enforcement officers in six months.
- MONEY LAUNDERING
Database of typologies of money laundering
In December, CICAD will launch a specialized on-line database of money laundering typologies that will pool and catalog information from the entire hemisphere. This innovative investigative tool will help law enforcement officials develop their own criminal cases against money launderers.
Mock trials
CICAD offered mock trials based on actual cases of money laundering in Bolivia, Peru, Honduras and Mexico to develop the skills of local prosecutors and judges. In addition, theoretical instruction on prosecuting money laundering crimes was provided to judges and prosecutors in Mexico and Peru.
Online training with the University of Salamanca (Spain)
An on-line graduate program on the investigation and prosecution of money laundering will be offered starting in 2008 with three tracks: law enforcement investigation (police), judicial system (prosecutors and judges), and finance (specialists from the financial intelligence units).
- ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Andean Countries Cocoa Export Support Opportunity (ACCESO)
In November, the CICAD-supported ACCESO program, aimed at promoting improvement in the quality, quantity and marketing of cacao production in traditional coca-growing areas, completed its first year of operations in Peru. At 34 farmer field schools, 796 cacao farmers were trained, 65 of whom themselves were certified as trainers. After just one year, the average per hectare income of participating farmers increased by over $200. The program is starting operations in Bolivia. The ACCESO program is a public-private partnership among World Cocoa Foundation (private business interests), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) and CICAD.
Creation of an “alternative development seal” as a marketing tool to promote legal products from drug crop producing regions
The Secretariat proposed this concept to the CICAD Commission at its meeting last week in Santa Marta, Colombia. The idea is that a certain portion of the public in developed countries would be willing to pay a premium for legal products grown in traditional drug crop areas and marketed under the “alternative development seal”, provided these products can meet international standards of quality.
After an extensive debate, the Commission requested that a CICAD Expert Group on Alternative Development be convened to consider, among other things, whether CICAD, in combination with other relevant OAS bodies, should pursue this concept.
Alternative Development Knowledge Network
CICAD launched the Alternative Development Knowledge Network (ADKN) both in English and Spanish. This is an on-line knowledge-sharing and communication tool for people working in rural development, especially drug-crop producing highland areas. ADKN is an interactive means for sharing development information, allowing users to contribute their own knowledge via simple but powerful tools for uploading documents, making announcements, having discussions and making their own web pages.
Rethinking the strategy for alternative development
The CICAD Secretariat presented at the Commission meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia a position paper that examines how alternative development should fit into CICAD’s Anti-Drug Strategy in the Hemisphere, given CICAD’s current institutional mandate, funding restrictions and available expertise.
- MULTILATERAL EVALUATION MECHANISM (MEM)
Publication of MEM Achievements 1997-2007
CICAD published a report entitled The Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism Achievements, 1997-2007 that assesses the MEM's performance through the first three evaluation rounds, both on a country-by-country and regional basis. This Report was delivered last June to the principal attendees of the OAS General Assembly.
Fourth Round MEM Reports
At its Santa Marta meeting, the Commission approved MEM evaluation reports for all 34 member states, which will be published in early 2008.
Collaboration with UNGASS
CICAD’s MEM section assisted the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on how to incorporate evaluative information from regional organizations, like that from CICAD’s MEM Country Reports, into the United Nations' own statistical information process. The UNODC is leading preparations for the 2008 10-year review of progress towards meeting the goals set by the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). This is the first time data from MEM evaluation reports are being considered to support UN data and analyses, and represents a significant acknowledgement by the international community of the Mechanism's track record.
- INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Decentralization Project on Anti-drug Strategies in the Andean Countries (Spanish funding)
This project worked with the national drug control commissions of all five participating countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela) to improve the capacity of regional, provincial and municipal governments to detect new trends of drug use and conduct locally tailored prevention and treatment programs. Activities this year culminated in the Ibero-American Workshop on Local Drug Policies, at the SpanishCooperationTrainingCenterin Cartagena, Colombia, October 29-November 2.
Support for national drug commissions
CICAD provided technical assistance to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Panama for the drafting of their national plans and strategies. In 2007, CICAD also conducted two courses for national drug commissions: strategic planning and management, which trained 90 participants in six countries, and formation of high performance teams to improve inter-agency cooperation on drugs, which trained 134 participants in five countries.
- RESEARCH
CICAD’s Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID) works with its counterparts in member states to carry out drug use surveys of among the general population and high school students. In addition, CICAD’s Educational Development and Research Section (EDRS) helped networks of universities (nursing, public health, education and medicine) to introduce drug-related subjects into their curricula and conducted graduate research training for health professionals through partnerships with Brazil and Canada.
Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID)
A CICAD/CARICOM-sponsored meeting of the Caribbean Drug Observatories, held in Grenada in September, provided an opportunity for member state participants from this sub-region to discuss the findings of recent high school student surveys on drug use that were conducted using standardized OID methodology. Also emphasized at this meeting were the linkages between research, policy making, program execution and evaluation.
Coordinated population surveys
CICAD’s OID partnered with UNODC to conduct surveys of drug use in South America that have made it possible for the first time to analyze and compare the results among a number of countries from a sub-region. The OID also has coordinated surveys in the Central American and the Caribbeansub-regions that shortly will yield similar sub-regional comparative studies.
On-line country profile data bank
Conscious of the importance “information” to the development of public anti-drug policies, in November, the OID inaugurated an on-line data bank containing drug information on all 34 member states. To feed this database, we have taken statistical data from open sources, including the MEM, our own drug consumption studies of general and specific populations, as well as on drug seizures, areas cultivated in marijuana, coca and opium poppy, drug labs destroyed, and persons indicted and convicted for trafficking of illicit drugs.
- EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH
Summer Seminar in Canada
Academics from five Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras and Peru) completed an intensive 12-week program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada and then returned to their own countries to begin a joint multi-centric study in these five countries on “Perceived Norms About Peers regarding Drug Use”
- INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS AND COOPERATION
The International Organizations with which CICAD partnered or cooperated in 2007 are: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Commission (EC), the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA), and the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Governments
In 2007, The United States, Canada, and Spain were CICAD’s largest cash contributors in specific funds. Other donors included Argentina, Chile, Colombia, France, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago. CICAD has worked hard to broaden its base of support beyond traditional sources. Brazil, Chile and Canada have assumed lead roles in providing horizontal technical assistance to other member states, especially in drug research and demand reduction. Their support helps CICAD leverage its limited resources to accomplish more.
Private enterprise or institutions
In 2007, CICAD cooperated with the Lions Club International Foundation and the World Cocoa Foundation