DUSHANBE, June 26, 2008, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday June 25, the Drug Control Agency (DCA) jointly with authorities of the districts of Vahdat and Tursunzoda organized various meetings and sports activities on the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which marked on June 26, according to the DCA press service.
Meetings dedicated to the drug abuse and trafficking subjects were attended by senior representatives of local authorities, clerics, law enforcement officers, as well as representatives of education and health sectors. Winners of the sports activities were warded with souvenirs provided by the counternarcotics agency.
Similar activities are being organized today in districts subordinate to the center, Gorno Badakhshan, Khatlon and Sughd provinces as well, the press service said.
According to the Tajik counternarcotics agency, Tajikistan has topped CIS states in terms of the amount of smuggled heroin and raw opium seized over the past eight year. Tajikistan accounts for more than 60 percent of heroin and raw opium sized within the CIS area.
According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), more than 9,000 drug addicts and drug users have been officially registered in the country so far.
The slogan of this year’s UNODC anti-drugs campaign is “Do drugs control your life? Your life. Your community. No place for drugs.” The slogan is used for three years and focuses on different aspects of drug control: drug abuse in 2007, drug cultivation and production in 2008, and illicit drug trafficking in 2009.
With this campaign, UNODC aims to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society. No individual, family or community is safe where illicit drugs take control. Drugs may control the body and mind of individual consumers, the drug crop and drug cartels may control farmers, illicit trafficking and crime may control communities.
The campaign”s goal is to inspire people and mobilize support for drug control. The proposed overarching campaign and the generic slogan are flexible. For example, variations on the slogan could be used to suit different contexts.
According to the UNODC, nearly 200 million people are using illicit drugs such as cocaine, cannabis, hallucinogens, opiates and sedative hypnotics worldwide. In December 1987 the UN General Assembly decided to observe June 26 as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The UN was determined to help create an international society free of drug abuse. This resolution recommended further action with regard to the report and conclusions of the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Following the resolution, the years 1991 to 2000 were heralded as the “United Nations Decade Against Drug Abuse”. In 1998 the UN General Assembly adopted a political declaration to address the global drug problem. The declaration expresses UN members’ commitment to fighting the problem.
