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Panel on a Presentation by Mr Chairman, On behalf of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), it is an honour for me to participate as a panelist in this International Congress. I should like to congratulate the Royal Thai Government, the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, and ASEAN for organizing this Congress on an issue that demands our urgent attention and concerted efforts. I have been invited to speak on the topic of a balanced approach to addressing new drug cravings by youth within the context of sustainable development. As the United Nations focal point for youth in Asia and the Pacific, ESCAP considers this topic to be specially relevant in our work to prevent illicit drug use among young people. ESCAP's contribution towards drug demand reduction among youth is premised on a balanced approach to addressing drug use in the region. There are three main inter-related goals of sustainable development that comprise the pillars of this balanced approach. The first goal is the fulfillment of human potential. The second goal is the expansion of choices for a more meaningful life. The third goal is the reduction of inequalities among social groups. Against this light, few people fulfill less of their potential and have less freedom of choice than illicit drug users. In this sense, drug abuse is incompatible with development. Of the 26 countries world-wide that the US State Department has identified as drug producing and/or drug-transit countries, five are ASEAN members. Of the 49 that have been identified as money-laundering countries, four major ones are also ASEAN members. In recent years, apart from kidnapping, drug-related crimes are the fastest growing category of reported crimes worldwide. Drug abuse, and the drug trade that feeds it, distort economic and social development. Thus, in this sense too, drug abuse is incompatible with development. The insidious aspects of this distortion of the development process and what we must consider in our pursuit of a drug-free ASEAN 2015 are the focus of my presentation today. Drug-related problems impede, and can derail, progress towards sustainable economic and social development in the ASEAN subregion in several ways. The nexus between drug abuse, exploitation of human vulnerability and crime directly heightens the level of violence in society and undermines public security. Pimps and gangsters commonly lure their victims into drug dependency as a means of entrapping them in bondage to serve vast supply networks. Drug production, trafficking and supply commonly involve the use of lethal weapons, both by the criminals and by law enforcement personnel. On the demand side, illicit drug users often steal, rob and assault to support their dependency. With the high stakes involved, pitching force against force would seem a rational response. According to this logic, ASEAN governments are compelled to channel enormous resources to fight the war against drugs. The same resources may therefore be diverted from education, health promotion, and other forms of social and economic support to address human development needs. The illicit drug trade thrives on poor governance, and further corrodes and weakens societies and governments. The drug lords and their networks are tenacious and elusive. There is often strong public and political pressure for the police to demonstrate results. This can lead to human right violations, including extra-judicial executions. Justice thus becomes more arbitrary, and the rule of law is further weakened. Such violations can also occur when the police force and influential public figures themselves engage in the lucrative drug trade. Drug abuse also leads to physical and mental health problems that weaken the fabric of society and undermine the workforce. An overdose of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) leads to tremors, loss of coordination, and even heart attacks or strokes. In the long term, amphetamine-related dependency can lead to malnutrition, psychosis and violence. In many ASEAN countries, needle sharing among injection drug users first led to HIV/AIDS gaining a foothold. Those illicit drug users who are employed are more likely to be absent from work, and are more likely to suffer work-related accidents. Developed country data estimate that drug use in the work place costs the economy 1 to 1.4 per cent of GDP. The reduced productivity of people who take illicit drugs is an economic and social loss. Furthermore, illicit drug use poses as a danger to other members of the work force and the general public. This is largely because of the pattern of amphetamine-type stimulant abuse in the industrial and land transport sectors, which lead to higher risks of accidents. This phenomenon must be more closely examined to generate a realistic basis for a more effective response. Also noteworthy is the high cost of treating and rehabilitating drug abusers. For example, the monthly cost of residential treatment in one ASEAN capital can be 300 US dollars. This is 40 times the annual health expenditure of an average citizen in the same country. When the quantifiable costs of drug abuse are added up, the total is usually equal to several per cent of a country's GDP. When we look at the broader, and less quantified, costs of illicit drug use, we find that these are even more alarming. So, who are drug users? Worldwide, most drug users are aged between 15 and 35. Those aged 18 to 25 manifest the highest rates of use. They include students cramming for exams, long distance truck drivers, stock exchange executives and party boppers. In the ASEAN subregion, it is deeply disturbing how commonplace drug abuse has become among young people. We see illicit drug use occurring at all levels of the socio-economic spectrum. Children and students from middle and upper middle class families are also users, together with school drop-outs who may be slum dwellers. What are the common conditions that predispose young people, be they from wealthy homes or hovels of deprivation, to experiment with dangerous drugs and to do so at ever younger ages? How have we failed to provide the conditions for growth and development that can protect our young to choose freedom from drugs? Why do so many succumb to drug dependency while some others do not? There is, indeed, every need to employ all means, including new technology, to address drug-related problems. For the moment, let us step back from the glamour and hype of surveillance technology and computer-based mechanisms to examine the particular vulnerability of young people to synthetic stimulants. There are push and there are pull factors. In the fast pace of the Internet age, it is "de rigeur" for young people to seek constant gratification from diverse sources of stimulation. Raised on video games and films that are characterized by violence, young people crave a steady diet of thrills to escape boredom. To do so, they need a steady stream of sensory and tactile inputs. These, in turn, further heighten the need for continuous excitement. Experimentation with illicit drugs, and the dependency that easily follows, is one aspect of this constant craving for excitement among young people. At the same time, families, parents and young people themselves face unprecedented pressure in their daily lives. This pressure is often experienced in the absence of support systems that have disintegrated in the face of rapid changes. The changes pervade work and home arrangements, technology use, and life styles. We often look to the "community" to play a bigger role in narcotics control and drug demand reduction. Who in the community can we lean on? Families? Parents? Teachers? Parents, guardians and teachers are increasingly overwhelmed by the complexity and multitude of responsibilities thrust upon them. Do they have the support that they themselves may need to deal with their own problems? Parents are most often blamed for the failures of their children. The family as an institution is under great strain to extend the support that its members may no longer be in a position to give. The problems are often manifested as family communication breakdown, domestic violence and other forms of psycho-social dysfunctioning. These impact on individual ability to learn, work and live a balanced life according to mainstream societal norms. Young people growing up in such dysfunctional environments model themselves on behavioural maladjustment. In this situation, illicit drug use is arguably a rational means of coping with the stress and strain of modern times. After all, drug use is associated with pleasant feelings, even euphoria. Who would not want to feel a sense of hope and self-confidence, however short-lived the feeling? Who would not choose to stay awake longer for play or to cope with work demands, even if this means using illicit drugs? Moreover, on the pull side, young people tend to be more curious and more defiant of the norms of established adult relationships. In youth culture, it is youth icons and peers, not parental authority, that dictate. Many of the icons of youth culture, who command a certain fascination among the young, are often associated with non-conformist behaviour. In some cases, that behaviour may include the use of illicit drugs. These youth icons may not necessarily be from the ASEAN region. The electronic media give wide coverage to youth icons and their actions. Glitzy advertisements powerfully project their image. In this way, their actions have a far greater impact on many more young people than in the case of an ordinary individual illicit drug user. The more society projects drug use as something bad and dangerous, the more youth attach allure to it, the tastier the forbidden fruit and the higher the status of those who dare to eat this fruit. It is important that this aspect of youth culture is recognized in the communication strategies to be implemented. On the supply side, one undesirable outcome of technological progress is that cheaper scientific methods now exist. They can produce much more powerful and more dangerous drugs and in larger quantities than in earlier times. Heroin has always been viewed as dangerous, and has always been confined to particular social groups. Amphetamine-type stimulants, on the other hand, have the spurious reputation of being safe, and attract users from all social strata. In our search for more effective strategies, be they on information and communication or the mobilization of civil society, we need to look at the roots of unquietness among young people. We need to explicitly recognize their psycho-social needs to grow at a more natural pace than we are allowing them to in a world that is evolving faster than at any previous period of history. We also need to look at what adequate support must be given to those adults who are directly responsible for the young, especially in their formative and most vulnerable years. Many people are unable to articulate their feelings of frustration and anger. Or, they have no one that they can turn to for advice and encouragement. Many need to have the opportunity to acquire skills and positive experiences for coping constructively with their problems. For too long now, we have neglected the human crises that feed the expansion of drug abuse, whatever its forms. There has to be a better balance in the allocation of resources between the war for narcotics control and the struggle for hearts and minds to choose freedom from drugs. Our responses must be flexible and tailored to clearly defined target groups. If we want to reduce illicit crop production, let us use satellite technology not only for surveillance, but also to help farmers increase their production of higher-value licit crops. Let us give them the IT skills and hardware to break their isolation and to tune in to market information. Let us help them to process and to sell value-added products. Let us give them a strong sense of self-respect, and of belonging to a wider society that values their responsible citizenship. Lastly, whatever the strategies that are devised, let us honour in practice the principles of participatory development. By involving young people in shaping strategies targeted at their peers, we stand a better chance of greater long-term effectiveness, and not just short-term efficiency, in the delivery of results. In the same way, we must work with each of the target groups of our strategies. Without an integrated economic and social approach to complement law enforcement measures, ASEAN societies could plunge into a black hole of narcotics warfare from which there may be no return to a sustainable development path. We must also ensure that our responses to illicit drugs do not harm the same norms and institutions that we are trying to protect. The war on drugs should not override the rule of law and respect for human rights. All our endeavours must be informed by what predisposes people to become involved in illicit drugs. Only then, can our understanding of life circumstances be used to effectively address the root causes and to avoid expensive cosmetic measures of limited impact. In the absence of a grasp of the phenomena, mere data crunching with the most powerful of computers will lead nowhere. The challenge is to develop in people the inner strength to adapt to the vagaries of life and the skills to negotiate their life courses in more constructive ways. We also need to help people acquire the means to satisfy, in a more balanced way, their economic and human needs, rooted in a deeper appreciation of positive cultural and spiritual values. All this requires that we collectively think afresh and act anew. Let's take the first step together in this Congress by committing ourselves to the success of the Plan of Action in Pursuit of a Drug-free ASEAN 2015. Thank you. |