The Argentine Government spoke out on Wednesday (8.5.2019) in support of the joint work between the Argentine Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Sedronar, and the Ministry of Security, as well as with neighboring countries and with relevant international actors in the fight against drug trafficking.
“From the Argentine Foreign Ministry we work on the international dimension of this scourge, in harmony with the Ministry of Health and Social Development and SEDRONAR in health and prevention policies, but also with the Ministry of Security to combat drug trafficking, associated transnational crime and the illegal movement of capital.” said Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie at the opening of the sessions of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), which will take place from May 8 to 10 in Buenos Aires.
The Foreign Ministry is part of the political coordination “with neighboring countries and with relevant international actors"In the fight against drug trafficking,"A commitment that President Macri has made very clearly and distinctly since the beginning of his administration."said Faurie, accompanied by the Minister of Health and Social Development, Carolina Stanley, the head of Sedronar, Roberto Moro, and the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, during the opening of the 65th CICAD session.
This is the Western political forum for dealing with the drug problem and its objective is to strengthen the human and institutional capacities of its member states to reduce the production, trafficking and use of illicit drugs, and to address the health, social and criminal consequences of this problem.
Nation's work with provinces
Bullrich, for her part, gave a broad overview of the achievements and challenges our country has faced since 2016. “We had to understand the logic of criminal organizations, analyze consumption and how much drugs were entering through our vast borders. We worked with the provinces, made a map of drug trafficking and set up more radars and special groups both at the physical and air borders, covering the Argentine northeast (NEA) and the northwest (NOA)", the Minister pointed out.
Three main axes
Stanley stressed that the Government has been working from day one on three axes that are “prevention, care and integration. For many years there was no information about who was suffering from this scourge and why, and consumption was normalised by previous decisions not to combat addictions, so we worked hard to denaturalise drug use and understand, for example, why the age of those who consumed was lowering.”
«As a government, we assume that we know in order to understand, and that we understand in order to act. This is how we increased addiction prevention programs by 400% and the entire comprehensive care system by 260%.", the Minister pointed out.
During CICAD sessions, representatives of member countries will present an overview of drug use in order to generate a discussion on the implications for public policies in the region.
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